'•      ■'IUIJM!!!'HIMt'MMiri|U..lHm 


UGl 


IIIN  22  1918 


NOT  LAWFUL  TO  UTTER 


DAN  CRAWFORD,  F.R.G.S. 


O''  ^'<? 


MIN 


NOT  LAWFUL 
.-.TO  UTTER.-. 

AND  OTHER  BIBLE  READINGS 


£1<«ICAL 


BY 


DAN  CRAWFORD,  F.R.G.S. 

AUTHO&   OF    * 'thinking    BLACK.** 


HODDER  &  STOUGHTON 

NEW  YORK 

GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


22  1918 


Copyright,    1914, 
By  Geoboe  H.  Doean  Compaxy 


CONTENTS 

BOOK  I.    APOSTOLIC  CHRISTIANITY 

PAGE 

I    *'NoT  Lawful  To  Utter'' 3 

II    '*A  Hundredfold  .  .  .  With  Persecutions"    11 

III    The  Parable  of  the  Storm 21 

33 
43 
53 
63 
73 


IV  ''Think  It  Not   Strange"    .     .      . 

V  ''Remember  .  .  .  Thou  Art  Fallen' 

VI  Paul  Not  Ashamed — and  Why 

VII  A  Royally  Revised  Verse     . 

VIII  "The  Times  of  the  Gentiles"  . 


BOOK  II.  LORD'S  SUPPER  REVERIES 

I    Thirsting  After  God 81 

II    The  Psalm   of  Psalms 89 

III  A  Resurrection  Reverie 101 

IV  "Be  Still  and  Know" Ill 

V    "Privately" 119 

VI    Certitude 127 

BOOK  III.    MISSION  STUDIES 

I  "So  They  Took  the  Money"  ....  137 

II    "The  Law  OF  Faith'' 145 

III  "The  Certainties  op  Faith"     ....  157 

IV  All  AT  It! .167 


NOT  LAWFUL  TO  UTTER 


BOOK  I 

APOSTOLIC  CHRISTIANITY 

I 

"NOT  LAWFUL  TO  UTTEE" 


^^What  was  PauVs  secret?  Why  is  i] 
have  been  saying  'Paul!  Paul!'  all  down  the 
centuries?  Why,  indeed,  if  not  that  the  Apostle 
of  the  Gentiles  was  a  happy  little  man  who  always 
had  a  better  time  with  God  than  he  ever  had  with 
man.'' 


''not  lawful  to  utteh'' 

2  Cor,  xii,  4 

Note  well  the  modest  manner  of  tlie  phrase. 
Paul  had  apostleship,  had  unction,  and  had  utter- 
ance. Nay,  more ;  by  night  and  by  day,  and  some- 
times all  night  and  all  day,  he  was  God's  pioneer 
witness  on  virgin  soil.  Indeed,  the  whole  vision 
of  Paul's  life — right  on  to  the  premature  old  age, 
when  he  waves  back  to  the  East  his  last  adieux 
from  Rome — ^is  that  of  sheer  irrepressibility  and 
spiritual  freshness.  This,  we  say,  is  the  man 
whom  God  claims  as  His  witness,  the  man  who 
had  that  old  snatch  of  desert  song  humming  in  his 

soul — 

''Spring  up,  0  well!'' 

That  the  well  did  spring  up,  and  that  too  unto 
the  everlasting  life  of  many,  is  indeed  a  first-cen- 
tury certainty.  There  is  no  dryness  here,  though 
all  around  is  arid  desert.    For  God's  river  was 

3 


4  APOSTOLIC  CHEISTIANITY 

full,  and  of  that  fulness  did  he,  Paul,  receive ;  yea, 
inflowing  grace  for  outflowing  grace. 

We  say  this  man  is  a  joy  unto  the  household  of 
God,  because  of  his  sheer  irrepressibility  and 
evergreenness.  He  has  always  a  word  of  com- 
fort and  cheer,  uttered  often  out  of  his  deep  in- 
firmities and  sore  straits. 

I 

What,  then,  we  would  hasten  to  enquire,  is  the 
avowed  source  of  all  this  spiritual  outflow  and 
Divine  unction  in  every  burning  word  of  Paul's? 
Why,  of  course,  the  specific  source  of  his  power 
lies  in  the  above  word,  which  declares  that  the 
man  has  a  secret.  Paul  can  preach  for  hours  and 
at  all  hours ;  can  preach  a  Eutychus  asleep,  as  he 
had  preached  a  hundred  such  men  awake  for  ever- 
more. He  has  much  to  say,  but  also — note  the 
word — ^much  more  that  he  cannot  say. 

His  life's  secret  was  in  the  * 'unspeakable 
words''  that  fed  with  endless  supply  all  his  other 
streaming  messages.  There  were  words  **not 
lawful  to  utter,"  and  yet  how  endless  was  the 
utterance  they  led  to!  Note  it  then,  God's 
preacher,  whose  it  is  to  be  watered  ere  thou  wa- 
terest  others. 

Called  to  publicity,  to  be  a  byword,  to  preach 


*'NOT  LAWFUL  TO  UTTER"  5 

in  season  and  out  of  season,  Paul  hath  yet  his 
sacred  retreat  in  life,  where,  in  the  covert  of 
God's  pavilion,  he  doth  hide  himself.  God  hath 
had  heavenly  transaction  with  the  man,  hath  whis- 
pered those  ** unspeakable  words''  into  his  ears, 
and  for  ever  sealed  His  servant's  lips.  Loud 
and  long  will  that  poor  voice  of  his  ("speech  con- 
temptible!") be  raised  for  God  with  the  throat 
dry,  yet  the  soul  never.  Nay,  never  dry  is  the 
preacher's  soul  who  has  such  secret  *^ unspeakable 
words"  to  royally  retire  back  upon. 

Having  fed  others,  here  is  ever  ready  for  him 
the  timely  table  of  God's  good  things,  spread  by 
God's  own  hands.  Why  is  it  "not  lawful"  for 
others  to  feast  hereat,  ah,  why  indeed?  Christ's 
own  answer  is  ready  to  hand.  There  is  an  old 
tryst,  an  old  promise,  in  the  words:  "I  will  sup 
with  him  and  he  with  Me!"  We  do  not  get  "our 
message,"  but  we  "sup"  and  get  that  which  may 
never  be  uttered  to  soul  of  man.  How  often  the 
divine  Host  is  grieved  to  see  us  secreting  for 
others  at  His  banquet  what  He  would  we  secreted 
in  ourselves! 

n 

Here,  then,  in  these  sequestered  back-paths  of 
the  soul,  the  costliest  treasure  of  God's  preacher 


6  APOSTOLIC  CHRISTIANITY 

is  acquired.  We  mean  that  old  mystery-word — 
unction.  It  is  not  utterance,  nor  fluency,  nor  elo- 
quence; but  the  unutterable  thing  of  the  Chris- 
tian life,  when  speech  as  a  method  of  communica- 
tion is  dethroned  and  cast  in  the  dust,  albeit 
Christ  shows  His  smiling  face  and  **our  hearts 
bum  within  us"  by  the  way.  God  would  thus 
reveal  to  us  how  inexorably  He  claims  in  our 
lives  just  such  holy  garden-land  as  He  found  in 
Paul's ;  in  which  the  Lord  God  would  walk  in  the 
cool  of  the  day,  communing  with  us.  Here,  far 
from  the  ken  of  brother-saint  or  brother-man,  He 
may  behold  something  man's  eye  never  saw — 
'Hhe  Father,  which  seeth  in  secret.'' 

Oh,  blasting  publicity!  Oh,  soul-withering 
cleverness!  Oh,  itching  ears  of  man!  Ye  are 
the  Church's  Amalekites,  her  thorns  in  the  side. 

Thus,  then,  we  learn  a  somewhat  startling  fact 
in  Paul's  life.  Glorious  apostle  though  he  was, 
they  never  got  his  best,  nor  yet  saw  him  at  Ms 
best,  Paul  kept  the  best  for  God,  even  as  God 
had  kept  His  best  for  Paul !  Living  by  grace  and 
preaching  that  grace  he  lived  by,  yet  was  he  under 
law  in  one  matter:  ^'It  is  not  lawful  to  utter" 
the  secret  of  my  God! 

Now  surely  just  here,  amid  deep  mystery,  there 


^'NOT  LAWFUL  TO  UTTER''  7 

are  worlds  of  simplicity.  Surely  there  are  many 
so-called  words  that  are  really  deeds.  And  even 
as  a  strong,  far-reaching  deed  mounts  up  to  the 
ears  of  God  with  a  clear,  ringing  trumpet-voice, 
so  in  Paul's  life  those  ^^unutterable  words"  were 
daily  coming  out  in  iron  deeds — ^^not  lawful  to 
utter,"  yet  fanning  the  flame  of  life,  and  energis- 
ing him  to  living  action. 

in 

Then,  beloved,  if  perchance  some  such  ** words" 
are  ours,  let  us  breathe  them  not  to  mortal  man. 
Keep  them  as  life's  capital,  life's  foundation — 
treasure  in  the  earthen  vessel.  Paul  will  not 
glory  in  Paul  the  preacher,  nor  yet  in  Paul  the 
martyr,  even ;  but  ah,  ''of  such  a  one  will  I  glory," 
saith  he.  Even  of  Paul  the  man  with  a  secret,  the 
nameless  ''man  in  Christ"  of  "fourteen  years 
ago,"  who  heard  "unutterable  words."  Of  such 
a  one  would  he  glory,  of  Paul  the  exalted  chief 
of  sinners;  Paul  the  cleansed  leper,  who  was 
charged,  like  the  other  leper  of  Galilee:  "/See 
thou  say  nothing  to  any  man/^ 

Beholding  the  glory  of  God,  not  as  in  a  glass, 
but  in  heaven's  third  heaven,  Paul  was  changed: 
See  then,  Paul,  that  you  say  nothing  of  this  to 


8  APOSTOLIC  CHRISTIANITY 

any  man,  but  go  down  life's  way  and  divinely, 
diffidently  show  thyself. 

So  unlawful  was  it  before  all  high  heaven  to 
speak  of  this  secret  transaction,  that  the  human 
participant  in  it  is  in  PauPs  mouth,  a  third  person, 
a  vague  old  friend  of  fourteen  years  ago ! 

Note,  we  say,  this  quaint  manner  of  his,  in 
shutting  up  all  possible  bypaths  that  might  lead 
to  his  keep,  his  fastness,  the  Lord's  garden-land 
in  his  life.  Herein,  then,  behold  Paul  the  puzzle 
and  Paul  the  power.  He  was  better  than  all  his 
preaching;  for  he  had  a  better  time  with  God 
than  he  ever  had  with  man.  He  was  a  true  star 
in  God's  firmament  in  the  sanely  scriptural  sense. 
Stars  do  not  speak;  they  shine;  and  yet,  forsooth, 
what  saith  the  Scripture?  *^ There  is  no  speech 
nor  language  where  their  voice  is  not  heard ;  their 
line  is  gone  out  through  all  the  earth,  and  their 
words  to  the  end  of  the  world." 

Eloquence,  indeed!  What  so  eloquent  as  such 
silence — shining  silence.  **See  thou  say  nothing! 
to  any  man,  but  go  thy  way  and  show  thyself." 
Offer  the  ^'living  sacrifice"  (Rom.  xii.  1).  **0f 
such  a  one  will  I  glory." 


n 

*'A  HUNDREDFOLD  .  .  .  WITH  PERSECU- 
TIONS" 


The  First  Century  Saints  used  to  gloriously 
greet  each  other:  Cheer  up,  brother,  the  worst 
has  yet  to  come! 

*  *  » 

*^The  more  they  afflicted  them  the  more  they 
grew." 

*  *  # 

'^As  the  sufferings  abound  so  the  conso- 
lations," 


n 

.   WITH   PEKSECUTIONS'' 

Mark  x,  30 

A  FEEBLE  age  is  the  mother  of  feeble  conceptions 
of  truth.  The  royal  words  of  the  first  century 
found  in  Gospel  and  Epistle,  need  a  royal  age  to 
interpret  them.  Truly  this  record  cometh  down 
to  us  wearing  a  thorny  crown!  It  is  royalty  in 
exile ;  kinghood  in  Adullam.  And  we,  indeed,  who 
have  neither  thorns,  nor  exile,  nor  Adullam,  in- 
stead of  frankly  averring  that  we  are  too  strait- 
ened to  receive  a  Kingly  One,  we,  forsooth,  take 
Him  into  our  mouths,  but  have  no  place  for  Him 
in  our  hearts. 

Because  ^'persecution"  was  in  my  Bible  por- 
tion this  morning,  was  it  therefore  in  any  hole  or 
comer  of  my  life  ?  It  was  a  hard,  rugged  path  of 
olden  time  along  which  saints  fled  from  city  to 
city:  am  I  in  such  a  path?  Ah,  beloved,  that 
very  first  century  so  much  befondled  by  us — how 
may  it  not  rise  up  in  judgment  against  us?  We 
borrow  glowing  imagery  from  it,  but  do  we  glow? 

11 


12  APOSTOLIC  CHRISTIANITY 

I 

Let  us  now  note  well  the  immediate  root  of  this 
wonderful  promise  as  to  receiving  *  *  a  hundredfold 
.  .  .  with  persecutions.' '  For  faith  will  have  no 
emphasis  other  than  on  the  seemingly  incongru- 
ous word  in  the  sentence.  Now  note  this.  Riches 
is  the  keynote  of  Christ's  theme  and  promise. 
The  context  of  this  text  is  that  the  rich  young 
man  had  just  gone  away  sorrowing,  for  he  had 
great  possessions.  And  now  Peter's  breast  swells 
with  a  holy  pride — for  he  too  was  (0!  yes)  was 
rich.  Fisherfolks,  indeed,  were  his  northern 
kinsmen;  but  what,  after  all,  are  the  true  riches 
of  life,  if  not  the  old  cottage  and  the  dear,  if 
humble,  fireside,  with  those  who  gather  there? 
^*Lo,  we  have  left  all!"  cries  Peter — a  contrast 
indeed  to  the  rich  young  man's  all,  whose  riches 
were  mere  things,  not  beings.  And  Christ,  who 
knew  what  heartburnings  and  wrenchings  were 
included  in  Peter's  actual  ^*all,"  chideth  him  not 
on  the  poor  old  fishing-smack,  or  poor  old  any- 
thing else,  but  gladly  gathers  up  every  human 
diamond  known  to  man  the  man,  and  not  man  the 
miser. 

And  these  He  sets  in  His  own  circlet  of  gold, 
a  crown  above  all  the  crowns  of  earth.    Diamonds, 


'^A  HUNDEEDFOLD"  13 

indeed  I  Yes,  saith  the  Lord,  I  know  what  even 
true  earthly  riches  are.  What  so  precious  as  a 
mother,  Peter?  A  wife,  sister,  or  brother,  Peter? 
Yes,  you  (not  that  other  one!)  were  **the  rich 
young  man,"  Peter,  and  I,  yes,  I  know  all  about 
it.  It  was  for  ''My  sake  and  the  Gospel's "  you 
left  all.  Then,  Peter,  your  debtor  am  I,  saith 
Christ ;  and  forthwith  came  the  wondrous  promise 
of  '^a  hundredfold  .  .  .  with  persecutions." 

n 

Now  let  us  see  why  this  saving  clause  as  to 
** persecutions"  is  wholly  necessary  to  the  very 
existence  of  the  things  promised.  Note  then — 
and  here  is  the  whole  pivotal  point — that  this  old 
Bible  word  ^^ persecute,"  whether  in  Old  or  New 
Testament,  can  best  be  Englished  by  the  word 
** pursue."  And,  truth  to  tell,  words  then  had 
more  intimate  connection  with  deeds  than  now. 
For  ''pursue"  surely  is  the  word  that  best  tells 
of  those  early  days  when  cities  were  left  under 
cover  of  night,  and  entered  as  often  under  cover 
of  disguise.  When  the  bishop  rolled  not  under 
the  city  arches  in  a  chariot,  but  was  perforce  to 
go  over  the  wall  in  a  basket!  When,  if  through 
the  gateway  he  must  leave  the  town,  it  is  to  be 


14  APOSTOLIC  CHEISTIANITY 

stoned  through  it,  aye,  and  left  for  dead  outside ! 
Ah,  beloved,  we  who  tremble  to  spiritualise  an 
Old  Testament  prophecy,  behold  how  we  spirit- 
ualise the  Book  of  Acts!  ^^ Words  regarding 
deeds/'  is  the  heading  we  give  this  Book  in 
Central  Africa;  suggestive,  indeed,  to  us  who 
abound  in  windy  words. 

Persecuted  in  one  city,  they  fled  to  another; 
yes,  fled  for  His  sake  and  the  Gospel's.  And  in 
each  city  that  old  promise  gets  fresher  and  fairer. 
Who  is  this  sixteenth-of-Eomans  beaming  matron 
greeting  the  weary  one?  Whose  those  sixteenth- 
of-Eomans  children  who  clamber  to  the  knee? 
Who,  indeed,  if  not  those  of  the  **  hundredfold 
with  persecutions'"! 

At  this  rate  the  promise  has  no  existence  but 
in  the  persecutions  or  pursuings.  Satan  stones 
them  out,  hoots  them  on,  only  to  further  God's 
work  in  the  making  good  of  that  grand  round 
number,  **a  hundredfold."  The  ** brothers"  and 
the  ^^ sisters"  are  all  there,  weary  one,  lining  your 
path  of  pursuit,  ahead.  Yes,  further  yet,  for  the 
better  ** mothers"  and  the  better  ** fields" — they 
are  all  there  to  succour  you !  *^He  shall  receive  a 
hundredfold  now  in  this  time,  houses,  and 
brethren,  and  sisters,  and  mothers,  and  children^ 


*^A  HUNDREDFOLD^'  15 

and  lands,  with  persecutions,  and  in  the  world  to 
come  eternal  life."  Ah,  here  Peter  and  his 
brethren  get  what  the  so-called  rich  young  man 
lost!  They  get  the  ** great  possessions"  plus 
the  eternal  life.  God  never  was  in  any  Peter's 
debt  yet.  But  His  loyal  loving  law  is :  Move  on ! 
And  if  we  will  not  move  on,  He  in  love  must 
shove  us  on.  It  was  only  when  the  fixed-in-one- 
spot  saints  at  Jerusalem  proposed  to  dispense  the 
Gospel  elixir  from  headquarters  only  that  God 
permitted  the  rod  of  persecution  to  scatter  them. 
Then,  we  read  (blessed  then!),  the  disciples  went 
everywhere  preaching  the  Word. 

Yes,  and  things  got  better  in  the  precise  pro- 
portion that  things  got  worse.  Even  when  they 
had  chased  Paul  into  prison,  it  was  only  that  God 
went  one  better.  Things  get  deeper  and  deeper, 
sweeter  and  sweeter.  For  they  are  not  mere 
plebeian  friends  this  time:  '^They  of  Caesar's 
household!"  Yes,  the  man  on  the  chain  got 
entree  into  ''all  the  palace."  *'I  would  ye  should 
understand,"  quoth  Paul,  ''that  the  things  which 
happened  unto  me  have  fallen  out  rather  unto  the 
furtherance  of  the  Gospel." 


16  APOSTOLIC  CHRISTIANITY 

III 

*'He  shall  receive  now  in  this  time  .  .  .  and 
in  the  world  to  come."  This  mention  of  the 
^^ world  to  come''  shows  that  the  enemy's  chase 
continues  right  on  to  the  frontier !  All  along  the 
line  of  the  pursuit,  devils'  hue-and-cry  notwith- 
standing, the  saint  has  been  the  gainer,  here  find- 
ing a  fresh  mother,  and  there  a  whole  Bethany  of 
sisters  and  brothers.  Rufus  may  have  a  mother, 
yes,  but  Paul  says  she  is  *'his  mother  and  mine." 
One  of  Paul's  twenty  thousand  mothers!  Is  not 
this  indeed  the  whole  purport  of  Rom.  xvi.,  yea, 
this  the  precise  divine  reason  for  the  long  list  of 
friends  recorded  there?  And  this,  to  show  how 
wisely  and  how  well  Christ  has  kept  that  old 
*' hundredfold"  promise  to  His  own. 

And  now,  **in  this  time"  is  about  to  end,  and 
with  it  the  pursuit  of  the  saint.  The  frontier, 
glad  frontier,  is  reached,  and  all  beyond  that  is 
Christ's  jurisdiction.  He  tells  of  **them  that  kill 
the  body,  and  after  that  have  no  more  that  they 
can  do."  How  definite  the  boundary  line.  How 
useless  their  menace. 

Now,  even  the  word  "hundredfold"  pales;  and 
as  the  soul  leaps  forth  over  the  border-line,  how 
many  fathers  and  brothers,  mothers  and  sisters,  to 


^'A  HUNDEEDFOLD"  17 

give  a  welcome!  Ah,  and  the  Father  and  the 
Brother  too — how  sure  their  welcome !  Now,  the 
note  is  not  one  of  leaving  all,  but  of  finding  all  for 
His  sake  and  His  Gospel's. 

0  Peter,  what  wealth  so  precious  as  a  poor 
man's!  What  money  so  dear  as  the  last  two 
mites!  The  Lord  knew  what  a  wrench  it  had 
been  to  leave  all.  He  knew  that,  daily  in  the  old 
lake-side  home,  the  hope  was  growing  that  Peter 
would  be  back  again.  So  He  goes  over  the  **all." 
The  *' house"  left  is  the  old  home,  and  against  that 
our  Lord  now  puts  the  '^many  mansions."  The 
brethren,  sister,  father,  mother,  and  children — all 
these  He  includes  in  that  hundredfold.  How  well 
did  Christ  understand  the  poor  man's  cause!  To 
Christ,  heaven's  wealth  was  the  Father,  not  the 
glories  of  eternity.  And  so,  instead  of  despising 
the  ties  and  longings  of  *4n  this  time,"  He  makes 
earth  border  on  heaven,  granting  both  earthly 
friends  and  fields,  and  an  eternity  with  Himself ! 

Ay,  but  whose  is  it  all,  0  self-satisfied  Saints? 
**  There  is  no  man  that  hath  left  ...  for  My 
sake  and  the  Gospel's,  but  he  shall  receive  a  hun- 
dredfold now  in  this  time  ..."  Shall  we  not 
seek  such  enrichment  from  our  Lord? 


ni 

THE  PAEABLE  OF  THE  STOEM 


It  is  not  the  water  outside  the  ship  that  sinks  it. 
It  is  the  ivater  inside. 

Seckbb. 

*  *  # 

And  after  these  things  I  saw  four  angels  stand- 
ing on  the  four  corners  of  the  earth,  holding  the 
four  winds  of  the  earth,  that  the  winds  should  not 
blow  on  the  earth,  nor  on  the  sea,  nor  on  any 
tree  .  .  .  till  we  have  sealed  the  servants  of  our 
God  in  their  foreheads. 

John. 

*  #  * 

Christ  said,  '*Let  us  go  to  the  other  side'' — 
Not  to  the  middle  of  the  lake  to  be  drowned ! 


m 

THE  PABABLB  OP  THE  STORM 

Mark  iv,  35-41 

It  had  been  to  the  Lord  a  long  day  of  parables 
by  the  lake-side.  Like  all  His  days  amongst  men 
this  one  was  a  long-drawn-out  parable  of  love  to 
the  end,  and  the  nearer  the  close  of  the  day  the 
deeper  the  mystery. 

Our  Lord's  parables  were  ever  twofold — 
parables  of  word  and  parables  of  deed.  And  His 
parables  of  word  were  ever  backed  by  His  lovely 
parables  of  deed — the  miracles  of  the  Gospels. 

If  there  is  **a  great  multitude"  it  is  a  deed- 
parable  that  has  drawn  them  together.  ^*  Hear- 
ing'' they  did  hear,  but  did  not  understand  the 
word-parable ;  yet  was  Christ  thronged  because  of 
His  royal  deeds. 

Meanwhile,  and  in  sharp  contrast,  behold  a  little 
inner  circle  of  disciples.  Of  God,  Christ  is  made 
unto  them  wisdom,  and  they  claim  life 's  best  claim 
— ^to  be  ** alone"  with  Him.    Their  privilege  is 

21 


22  APOSTOLIC  CHRISTIANITY 

that  Christ  the  Preacher  will  be  made  unto  them 
Christ  the  Interpreter.  And  He,  0!  He  loves 
them  for  it;  loves  them  because  they  have  found 
their  need  of  Him,  which  is  indeed  the  whole  pur- 
port of  His  parables.  **  Without  a  parable  spake 
He  not  unto  them" — the  multitude — and  why  I 
The  same  verse  gives  the  answer — ^^When  they 
were  alone  He  expounded  all  things  to  His 
disciples. ' '    Let  us  ponder  this  deed-parable. 

First  reflection.  And  the  same  day — a  day 
of  word-parables — *^when  the  even  was  come,'' 
the  Lord  must  crown  the  word  with  the  deed. 
The  scholars  have  had  a  long  day  of  theory,  and 
now  for  practice.  The  Lord  is  going  to  test  how 
much  they  have  learned.  And  His  test,  like  all 
His  tests,  is  near  to  hand.  For,  lo!  here  is  **the 
ship''  as  it  has  lain  the  whole  day.  From  that 
little  ship  the  *^ doctrine"  of  Christ  has  streamed 
forth  on  the  multitude  the  long,  happy  day,  and 
now  at  even  the  Lord  invites  His  disciples  into 
the  ship,  and  they  are  going  to  voyage  under  His 
captaincy  across  to  the  other  side. 

(Ah,  how  typical  it  all  is — this  voyaging  vessel, 
with  the  Lord  aboard,  going  over  to  the  despised 
swine-herding  Gardarenes.  **Let  us  go" — Me 
and  you  together — **over   to   the   other   side." 


THE  PAEABLE  OF  THE  STORM       23 

How  this  seems  to  be  echoed  by  *^  Go  ye  .  .  .  and 
lo!  I  am  with  you.'') 

And  their  Lord,  who  is  ever  girded  for  service, 
even  at  the  midnight  hour,  needs  no  preliminary 
delays,  nor  can  he  brook  them.  ^'They  took 
Him  even  as  He  was  in  the  ship, ' '  we  read,  which 
surely  seems  to  prove  that  He  had  not  left  it 
the  long  day.  Such  indeed  is  the  eternal  basis 
of  all  fellowship  with  Him.  He  had  taken  them 
as  they  were,  and  **they  took  ffim,  even  as  He 
was.''  How  auspicious  a  start  on  the  overseas 
voyage,  and  how  goodly  the  crew  indeed. 

Second  keflection.  Ah,  but  heard  ye  not 
that  there  is  sorrow  on  the  sea ;  that  it  cannot  be 
quiet?  God's  ^^way  is  in  the  sea"  and  His  **path 
in  the  great  waters."  For  if  man  goes  down  to 
the  sea  in  ships,  and  does  business  in  the  great 
waters,  so  does  God  too.  And  God's  business  has 
to  do  with  man's.  His  business  down  there  is  as 
Promise-Maker  to  be  Promise-Keeper  and  when 
they  pass  through  the  waters  He  will  be  with 
them. 

And  now  the  storm  is  brewing,  and  while  yet 
it  breaks  not,  let  us  with  pathos  survey  the  scene. 

There  is  the  ship  chartered  and  piloted  by 
Omnipotence,  and  bound  for  the  desired  haven. 


24  APOSTOLIC  CHEISTIANITY 

There  are  '^the  other  little  ships '*  not  bidden  to 
go,  and  therefore  not  bound  to  arrive  at  '^the 
other  side."  Ah,  hapless  little  ships  with  no 
Christ  aboard.  And,  of  course,  their  pilots  are 
not  sleeping — oh,  no.    Watch  it  out. 

And  now  the  storm  breaks — God's  stormy  wind 
fulfilling  His  word,  and  happy  alone  is  he  who  is 
out  doing  God's  business  in  the  great  waters. 
For  God's  storm  can  only  help  God's  business. 
Yea,  is  not  this  very  shriek  of  wind  and  roar  of 
wave  claimed  by  Psalm  xxix.  as  Jehovah's  own 
voice?  'Tis  the  voice  of  Jehovah  that  is  upon  the 
waters;  yea,  the  God  of  glory  thundereth.  He 
hath  called  Faith  forth  on  this  voyage,  in  order 
that  Faith  may  learn  that  He  still  speaks  in  the 
throat  of  the  whirlwind.  To  those  ''m  the  other 
little  ships ' ' — the  onlookers  of  life — ^it  is  as  of  old, 
only  God  thundering.  To  the  son  in  the  secret 
of  the  Father  comes  the  voice,  and  that  of  cheer. 

Thied  reflection.  Yet  look,  for  angels  are 
weeping.  What  angels  ?  What,  indeed,  if  not  the 
four  angels  standing  on  the  four  corners  of  the 
earth  holding  the  four  winds  of  the  earth?  Oh, 
yes,  the  wintry  winds  may  blow  but  only  after  the 
servants  of  God  are  sealed  in  their  foreheads. 
Talk  about  Marine  Insurance?    Was  there  ever 


THE  PARABLE  OF  THE  STORM       25 

such  a  bonnd-to-arrive  crew  as  this  voyaging  band 
who  have  been  sealed  with  ^Hhe  seal  of  the  living 
God?"  Did  not  the  Christ  say  to  them,  ''Let  us 
go  to  the  other  side'' — not  to  the  middle  of  the 
lake  to  he  drowned!  And  is  not  the  pledged 
promise  of  Christ  both  seal  enough  and  surety 
enough?  **In  for  a  penny,  in  for  a  pound,"  and 
Christ's  fate  is  their  fate.  His  assured  arrival 
is  theirs.  Therefore,  I  repeat  it,  angels  are  weep- 
ing at  this  hubbub  among  the  Apostles.  They 
who  seemed  **all  of  one" — He  their  Lord  and 
they  His  disciples — ^how  far  apart  they  have 
drifted.  They  have  fallen  from  grace.  And 
yet  Grace  is  at  their  side.  A  near  Christ  and 
a  far-off  Christian — ^what  sorrow  like  that  sor- 
row. But  Christ's  best  teaching  is  in  His  best 
doing;  and  Faith's  doing  consists  in  its  not  doing. 
For  lo,  He  sleepeth.  Ah,  the  wonder  of  it — sleep- 
ing pillowed  sleep.  And  if  Christ's  dear  Cross  is 
the  Christian's,  then,  too,  should  His  soft  pil- 
low be  theirs.  Else  there  is  mutiny  on  God's 
high  seas.  It  is  enough  for  the  crew  that  they 
be  as  the  Captain;  and  He  had  no  pillow  that  they 
had  not.  ''Let  us  go  to  the  other  side" — this  was 
pillow  indeed  for  each  and  all.  For  to  Faith 
this  trumpeting  of  the  hurricane  is  God's  glori- 


26  APOSTOLIC  CHEISTIANITY 

ons  orchestra.  Therein  He  doth  set  to  music 
the  words  of  the  prosaic  lake-side  proposal,  **Let 
us  go  to  the  other  side/' 

Yes,  this  is  Faith's  portion — to  seize  upon  the 
music  of  the  whirlwind,  in  a  sinking,  water-logged 
boat,  with  a  sleeping  Christ;  and  to  hear  the  one 
voice  of  certitude  as  to  safety!  Faith  has  to 
learn  the  logic  of  the  Holy  Grhost,  which  says  **He 
sleeps,"  therefore  all  is  well.  To  sum  it  all  up; 
this  is  the  lesson  they  have  been  set  to  learn — All 
ill  is  well ;  all  bad  is  good ;  and  the  very  worst  is 
the  very  best ! 

This  is  God's  ideal  of  faith  at  its  best.  The 
actual  state  of  things  of  course  was,  as  we  know, 
unbelief  at  its  worst.  Yes,  they  awoJce  Him; — 
awoke  Him  from  sleep,  sleep  (can  you  dare  the 
thought?)  which  they  too  might  have  been  enjoy- 
ing. What  unbelief  thinks,  even  that  it  says ;  and 
this  is  why  what  is  really  dishonest  doubt  passes 
nowadays  as  *^ honest  doubt." 

Yes,  **He  is  a  had  Captain";  that,  and  not  less 
than  that,  has  been  lurking  in  their  hearts.  The 
lake  storm  is  the  lesser,  and  the  black  storm  in 
their  hearts  is  the  greater.  A  little  more,  as  in 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  and  they  who  mutiny 
against  the  Captain  will  crucify  Him  ^* afresh"; 


THE  PAEABLE  OF  THE  STORM       27 

which  means  that  they  did  it  before.  And  this 
mutiny-murder  of  theirs  was  far  keener  to  God's 
heart  than  that  former  one.  Then  it  was  the  out- 
cast Man,  with  visage  marred  with  sorrows,  whom 
they  crucified.  NoWy  in  Hebrews,  He  is  the  glori- 
fied Christ  seated  on  the  right  hand  of  the 
Majesty  on  high,  and  whom  God  did  glorify  they 
do  crucify.  God  is  ever  the  scourger  of  every  son 
whom  He  receiveth,  and  they,  the  scourged  ones, 
strike  bach  at  Him, 

But  Mark  iv.  is  not  Hebrews  vi.,  thank  God. 
For  we  can  say  of  our  brethren  of  Mark  iv.  (that 
is  of  the  twelve,  except  one)  that  we  are  persuaded 
better  things  of  them.  Of  the  sleeping  Christ  too, 
we  are  doubly  persuaded  that  He  will  not  try 
them  above  that  which  they  are  able. 

Final  reflection.  At  last  they  call  Him  who 
had  been  longing  for  their  call.  Earlier  call 
would  have  seen  earlier  calm.  Yet  call  early,  or 
call  late,  *^He  maketh  the  storm  a  calm,  so  that 
the  waves  thereof  are  still.'' 

Yea,  and  what  a  call!  A  challenge,  not  a  re- 
quest; a  protest,  not  a  prayer;  a  thorough  con- 
tradiction, in  fact,  with  its  ^^ Master!"  and  its 
*'Carest  Thou  not?"  Yet  they  call;  call  upon 
Him  in  their  day  of  trouble,  and  He,  0!  He  an- 


28  APOSTOLIC  CHRISTIANITY 

swers  with  God-like  alacrity,  and  that  abundantly. 
For  they  are  His,  and  He  is  Himself.  And  their 
prayer  is  not  mere  words,  oh,  no ! 

Prayer  is  calling — **deep  calling  nnto  deep." 
Prayer  tells  of  need,  that  is  to  say ;  and  the  meas- 
ure of  the  prompting  need  determines  the  measure 
of  the  answer. 

Therefore  cometh  the  great  calm,  for  their 's  had 
been  the  great  storm.  But  it  is  Himself  that 
engrosses  them  now — **What  manner  of  Man  is 
this?"    Not,  *'What  manner  of  men  are  we?" 

Not  a  word  now  even  as  to  what  manner  of 
storm  it  had  been.  Great  storm  and  great  calm 
are  lost  in  the  great  Lord  of  both.  Truly  the 
Lord  indeed  had  been  sitting  over  this  ^'flood^^ 
(P.  xxix.). 

The  lake  is  calm,  but  not  their  hearts!  *^They 
feared  exceedingly."  ** Great,"  in  fact,  is  the  ad- 
jective qualifying  the  whole  voyage,  for  great  is 
the  Lord  with  whom  they  have  to  do.  The  storm 
that  estranged  them — see  now  how  it  brings  them 
nearer!  He  sees  their  *^  little  faith,"  and 
strengthens  it ;  and  they  learn  more  what  manner 
of  Lord  He  is,  and  adore  Him. 

Blest  storm !  Blest  voyage !  May  such  a  bene- 
diction of  peace  rest  upon  all  God's  lonely  ones 


THE  PARABLE  OF  THE  STORM       29 

far  out  on  the  high  seas,  battling  ' '  'gainst  storm 
and  wind  and  tide/' 

'*Star  of  Peace!  when  winds  are  mocking 
All  Ms  toils f  he  flies  to  Thee: 
Save  him,  on  the  billows  rocking, 
Far,  far  at  sea!'' 


IV 

"THINK  IT  NOT  STRANGE" 


''There  is  no  high  hill  hut  "beside  some  deep 

valley. 

#  «  * 

There  is  7w  birth  without  a  pang. 

*  *  * 

'^  The  Evening  and  the  morning  were  the  first 
day''  and  only  in  such  solemn  sequence  can  you 
have  even  one  divine  day.  The  DeviVs  pro- 
gramme is  to  open  his  day  with  a  morning  and 
end  it  with  an  Evening — yeSj  am,  evening  that 


IV 

'*  THINK   IT   NOT   STEANGE^' 

1  Pet.  iv.  12 

The  persistent  news  of  fever-deaths  in  Africa 
and  the  noble  martyrdoms  in  China  are  surely 
loud  calls  to  the  whole  Church  to  arise  and  carry 
Christ's  cross.  To  all  who  wonder  desolately 
why  the  missionary  ranks  are  so  broken,  the  un- 
erring answer  of  love  is  found  in  the  reproving 
words,  *^ Think  it  not  strange.''  True,  it  is  only 
human  to  groan  in  dejection;  but  God  has  ever 
an  inspiring  side  to  a  depressing  reality.  The 
earthly  moan,  *^Why  this  waste?"  is  countered  by 
God's  own  reproof,  ** Think  it  not  strange." 

I 
And  note,  please,  firstly,  how  the  whole  pun- 
gency of  this  reproof  lies  in  the  blessed  fact  that 
it  is  Peter  who  is  the  writer.  He  preaches  what 
he  is  going  to  practise.  For  this  Peter  it  is  who  is 
doomed  to  die.  All  his  life  this  dear  man  carries 
the  cross,  and  finally  on  a  cross  must  he  yield  up 

33 


34  APOSTOLIC  CHRISTIANITY 

his  life  to  God  as  an  offering  of  a  sweet  smell. 
Yet  is  there  no  resenting  of  death  with  asperity 
on  his  part.  On  the  glorious  contrary,  he  alone 
it  is — this  doomed-to-die  Peter — ^who  writes  of 
ours  being  **a  living  hope''  or  hope  of  life.  In 
these  throbbing  words  we  see  not  merely  life  but 
life  more  abundant.  Thus  it  is  he  invites  us,  as 
it  were,  into  his  most  sacred  confidence  in  the 
solemn  concern  of  his  own  approaching  decease. 
He  urges  that  his  cross  is  really  a  crown.  He 
says,  We  are  begotten  unto  a  hope  of  life,  and  I, 
Peter,  hereby  certify  that  it  is  not  death  to  die. 
Jesus  Christ  hath  abolished  death  for  Peter,  and 
much  more  than  that.  He  hath  brought  life  and  im- 
mortality to  light,  therefore  ours  can  only  be  a 
living  hope.  No  wonder  Peter  disowns  the  very 
word  ''death."  The  outsiders,  of  course,  assert 
that  Peter  died.  Peter  himself,  while  yet  in  the 
body,  says,  ''I  must  put  off  this  my  tabernacle." 
And  so,  too,  with  these  reproving  words: 
''Think  it  not  strange."  Here,  again^  as  in  the 
phrase,  a  living  hope,  a  personal  incident  in 
Peter's  history  is  wholly  elucidatory  of  his  point. 
For  the  same  Peter  who  once  connnitted  that  fatal 
folly  with  the  sword  now  calls  upon  them,  not  to 
arm  with  a  sword  but  with  a  mind.    Do  not  arm 


'^ THINK  IT  NOT  STRANGE''  35 

yourselves,  as  I,  Peter,  once  did,  with  a  sword, 
but  arm  yourselves  with  Christ's  mind  to  suffer. 
Surely,  the  point  is  that  suffering  is  such  an  ad- 
mittedly repellent  thought  to  the  natural  mind, 
that  only  the  armour  of  a  spiritual  mind  on  the 
subject  of  suffering  can  combat  it.  Besides,  the 
flesh  wars  against  the  Spirit,  hence  Peter's  shrill 
battle-call — Arm  !  And  now  a  very  natural  thing 
happens.  Having  so  armed  his  readers  with  this 
mind-armour,  Peter  at  once  calls  upon  them  to 
use  it.  ^^ Think  it  not  strange,"  says  he,  '* con- 
cerning the  fiery  trial  which  is  to  try  you,  as 
though  some  strange  thing  happened  unto  you." 
What  is  the  use  of  mind-armour  if  we  think  suf- 
fering strange?  The  very  same  thing  this  (and 
by  the  same  Peter)  as  when  he  warns  Christian 
women  to  be  so  adorned  in  mind  that,  as  a  conse- 
quence, they  may  not  be  *  *  afraid  with  any  amaze- 
ment. ' '  The  point,  then,  is  clear.  All  this  being 
forewarned  of  coming  fiery  trial  is  merely  that, 
literally,  we  might  be  forearmed. 

II 
But  harder  things  are  on  the  tip  of  Peter's  pen, 
for  the  Apostle  may  surely  preach  what  he  is  go- 
ing to  practise.     These  hard  things  are  such  a 


36  APOSTOLIC  CHRISTIANITY 

blow  to  the  flesh  that  only  this  protective  mind- 
armour  keeps  us  from  reeling  under  it.  God  is 
still  the  God  of  mercy  who  **  remembers  that  we 
are  dusf  Hence,  knowing  as  He  does  how  stag- 
gering is  the  solemn  word  He  is  about  to  utter, 
God  in  very  mercy  calls  upon  us  to  arm  before 
He  delivers  the  blow.  That  piercing  thrust  from 
the  *' Sword  of  the  Lord''  is  the  momentous 
declaration  that  the  very  **  righteous  shall  scarcely 
be  saved 'M  Yes,  the  righteous,  green  trees 
though  they  be.  And  if  God  so  deal  with  His 
own  green  trees,  what  of  the  dry!  (Luke  xxiii. 
31).  It  is  a  fiery  trial,  and  only  the  green  trees 
will  get  through  it. 

Here,  then,  we  see  God  weaving  our  **web  of 
time ' '  with  mercy  and  with  judgment.  The  mercy 
is  seen  in  God's  own  concession  that  to  our  frail 
and  human  thought  it  is  nothing  less  than  start- 
ling to  be  told  that  judgment  must  begin  at  the 
house  of  God !  A  tender  and  Divine  concession  to 
the  solemn  fact  that  we  are  dust.  A  holy  admis- 
sion on  God's  part,  let  us  call  it,  that  if  He  did  not 
first  arm  us.  He  would  harm  us.  But  we  have 
been  forewarned  and,  therefore,  forearmed.  The 
armour  is  the  **mind  of  Christ, "and  therefore  it  is 
positive  as  well  as  negative.    Not  merely  do  we 


'* THINK  IT  NOT  STRANGE"  37 

not  think  it  strange,  but  we  positively  (do  we?) 
** glory  in  tribulation."    There  is  the  rub. 

This  inner  glimpse,  then,  into  the  deep  recesses 
of  Peter's  heart  is  worth  more  than  gold  to  ns. 
We  see  the  power  of  Christ's  resurrection  ener- 
gising his  soul  with  the  joy  of  the  life  eternal. 
His  words  are  not  the  sad,  gloomy  forebodings  of 
a  hopeless  soul.  He  strikes  the  same  note  as 
** beloved  brother  Paul"  in  his  last  farewell  to  the 
Church  of  God.  Paul,  too,  declares  that  the  hour 
of  his  departure  is  at  hand.  It  is  Paul  in  the 
chain  who  shouts  that  **our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ 
hath  abolished  death!"  These  words  would 
thrill  us  at  any  point  of  Paul's  noble  life;  how 
much  more  thrilling  are  they  on  the  eve  of  his  exe- 
cution! **I  am  now  ready  to  be  offered,"  but, 
death   of  ignominy  notwithstanding,   it   is   not 

death  to  die. 

ni 

The  mighty  martyrs  of  our  God  knew  Christ's 
cross  too  well  to  think  their  carrying  of  the  cross 
to  be  strange.  The  "strange  act"  of  God  was 
when  He  rose  up  in  wrath  against  '* His  own  Son" 
for  our  redemption.  And  with  the  dying  Peter 
and  the  dying  Paul  the  vision  of  love  at  the  Cross 
hushed  every  human  murmur.    The  strange  thing 


38  APOSTOLIC  CHEISTIANITY 

was  that  the  Son  of  God  so  suffered.  And  now 
all  that  remains  for  ns  is  to  be  partakers  of  His 
sufferings.  Not  merely  to  ^Hhink  it  not  strange 
concerning  the  fiery  trial,''  but  to  positively  re- 
joice inasmuch  as  we  are  partakers  of  it. 

** Think  it  not  strange" — for  the  servant  is 
certainly  not  above  his  Lord.  '*  Think  it  not 
strange'' — for  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  is  the  seed 
of  the  Church.  All  the  records  of  first-century 
Christianity  have  reached  us  soaked  in  blood  and 
tears.  Down  the  corridors  of  time  come  wafted 
the  Eoman  shrieks,  *  *  The  Christians  to  the  lions ! ' ' 
If  we  think  it  strange,  then  admittedly  we  have 
forgotten  to  arm.  Peter  could  say  all  this,  for 
he  was  going  to  die  upon  this  very  truth.  But 
he  also  claims  for  his  readers  a  full  cup  to  drink. 
In  chapter  v.  10  they  are  declared  to  be  ^*in 
Christ."  Now,  one  great  point  of  our  being 
members  of  the  Body  of  Christ  is  declared  to  be 
that  if  one  member  suffer  all  the  members  suffer 
with  it.    Hence  the  Divine  order  is : 

(1)  Partakers  of  Christ  (Heb.  iii.  14) ; 

(2)  Partakers  of  Christ's  sufferings  (1  Pet.  iv. 
13); 

(3)  Partakers  of  the  Glory  (1  Pet.  v.  1). 
Thus,  we  are  seen  to  be  *4n  Christ,"  God's 


*^  THINK  IT  NOT  STRANGE ''  39 

green  tree,  both  for  fruit  and  fire,  and  if  God  so 
deal  with  the  green  tree,  what  of  the  dry? 

Here,  then,  sounds  the  old  call  to  close  up  the 
broken  mission  ranks  of  heathendom.  Soul  after 
soul  in  Central  Africa  has  witnessed  in  conversion 
that  the  very  thought  of  the  loved  missionaries 
dying  for  their  race  and  land  has  melted  them  to 
repentance. 


V 

"EEMEMBEE  .  .  .  THOU  AET  FALLEN" 


Christ  sometimes  used  the  faithful  formula: 
^^ Verily,  I  say  unto  you.''  Sometimes  He 
doubled  the  defimteness  by  saying,  ''  Verily, 
VERILY,  /  sa^  unto  you/'  Even  so  He  sent 
only  one  Epistle  to  the  Romans  but  two  Epistles 
(tw'o  *^Verilys!")  went  to  the  Ephesians. 

*  *  * 

We  speak  about  the  First  and  Second  Epistles 
to  the  Thessaloniuns  and  the  First  and  Second 
Epistles  to  the  Corinthians.  But  how  little  we 
hear  of  the  First  and  Second  Epistles  to  the 
Ephesians  ? 

*  *  * 

The  first  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  says  they 
were  seated  in  the  heavenUes.  The  second 
Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  says  they  are  fallen 
from  those  heights. 


''remember   .    .    .   THOU    ART    FALLEN '* 

Rev.  a,  5 

It  is  a  church  that  is  addressed,  note  well.  Not 
'*ye"  the  church,  but  **thou."  For  there  is  no 
unity  like  church  unity,  and  no  fall  like  a  church 
fall.    And  what  a  fall  for  Ephesus ! 

I 

More  than  twenty  years  previously  Paul's  letter 
to  them  had  come  to  their  doors ;  and  four  years 
before  that  the  elders  of  Ephesus  had  all  wept 
him  off  at  Miletum,  falling  on  his  neck  and  ar- 
dently kissing  him.  And  well  indeed  they  might 
weep,  for  this  was  the  man  who  had  given  his  days 
and  nights  and  his  tears  to  Ephesus.  **I  ceased 
not  by  the  space  of  three  years  to  warn  everyone 
night  and  day  with  tears." 

In  that  Eoman  emporium  of  Asia,  with  its 
theatre  and  temple,  pro-consul  and  town-clerk, 
Paul  had  cast  the  Lord's  net  and  drawn  **of  every 

43 


44  APOSTOLIC  CHEISTIANITY 

kind/'  doubtless  from  both  temple  and  theatre. 
For  three  glad  years  had  this  gone  on,  the  burn- 
ing message  flowing  from  him  and  the  tears 
streaming  down.  He  kept  no  tears  for  his  own 
misfortunes,  for  he  had  no  ills  in  life.  His  tears 
were  for  their  woes.  And  tears  begat  tears,  for 
lo !  they  weep  as  they  see  him  off,  adding  kiss  to 
kiss. 

Yet  here  was  no  merely  soft-hearted  preacher 
leaving  them.  Paul's  eye  was  a  falcon,  jealous 
eye  for  their  souls '  needs.  There  is  no  pastor  like 
an  evangelist,  and  no  teacher  like  him  who  is 
both.  And  here  Paul,  like  his  Lord,  realises  how 
solemn  a  thing  a  ** good-bye"  can  be.  Not  the 
mere  receding  of  bodies,  one  from  the  other,  in 
the  increasing  haze.  But  the  solemnity  is  in  the 
farewell  words — the  good-bye  gift  of  the  treasure 
of  our  God  in  hallowed,  tender  farewell.  The  next 
time  these  are  all  going  to  meet — oh,  how  solemn 
the  thought  for  all! — is  at  the  judgment-seat  of 
Christ.  Therefore  came  the  word,  so  needed 
then,  and  still  more  needed  now,  **Take  heed  to 
yourselves. ' ' 

Paul  joyed  that  they,  as  ** light  in  the  Lord,'' 
would  be  for  God  by  night  and  day  when  he  was 
far  away.    But  just  here  Paul  the  evangelist  is 


'^THOU  ART  FALLEN''  45 

lost  in  Paul  the  pastor.  Nay,  not  of  the  needs  of 
Ephesus  is  he  thinking  now,  but  of  theirs.  These 
ex-votaries  of  Diana,  will  their  zeal  outstrip  their 
love  1  Good  preachers,  will  they  be  good  lovers  I 
Time  will  reveal  this;  but  at  least  they  hang  on 
his  words,  and  particularly  on  these  concerning 
the  advent  of  apostatisers.  Let  them  come,  said 
they  of  Ephesus ;  they  will  find  us  clinging  to  the 
truth  of  God.  Indeed,  who  so  leal  as  they,  when 
others  were  drifting  away?    And  now  tragedy ! 

The  first  of  the  seven  Epistles,  in  Eev.  ii.,  shows 
them  to  us  nearly  thirty  years  after,  with  a 
solemn  look  of  stern  zeal  on  their  faces.  They 
who  had  borne  and  laboured  so  patiently  for 
Christ's  sake,  they  could  not  bear  them  that  were 
evil.  Forewarned  by  Paul,  they  are  forearmed, 
and  Paul,  who  had  left  his  mark  in  every  Ephesian 
home  (^^from  house  to  house")  could  not  be  sup- 
planted. 

But  God  will  have  the  best;  and  Love  en- 
throned in  the  glory  must  beget  love,  or  it  will 
have  loved  in  vain.  Alas!  the  burden  and  heat 
of  the  day  has  dried  the  fountain  of  their  tears; 
they  are  like  **a  bottle  in  the  smoke":  no  tears  in 
them  now,  though  the  smoke  brings  tears  to  the 
Lord's  eyes  as  He  beholds  them  dry  and  sere. 


46  APOSTOLIC  CHRISTIANITY 

II 

They  are  '^fallen"  in  Love's  eyes;  yes,  they, 
the  orthodox,  who  held  fast  the  form  of  sound 
words,  and  sent  back  a  counterblast  to  every  blast 
from  the  Temple  of  Diana  and  the  theatre — they 
are  fallen  from  the  heights  of  Love!  Love  is 
jealous,  and  sorrows  that  they  know  not  her  power 
in  the  highest.  Love  looks  on  it  all  with  a  sad 
heart — all  their  clear-cut  routine  and  visions  of 
statistics ! 

Zeal's  eyes  kindle  as  she  counts  her  heads  and 
looks  up  expectantly  for  Love's  **Well  done!" 
But  nay :  Love  has  only  the  old-time  answer  for 
Zeal.  '*Even  the  devils,"  said  Zeal  once  exult- 
ingly,  "are  subject  to  us."  **Nay,"  said  Love, 
'* therein  rejoice  not,  but  rather  rejoice  because 
your  names  are  written  in  Heaven." 

"And  now,  brethren,"  said  Paul,  "I  commend 
you  to  God  and  to  the  word  of  His  grace,  that  is 
able  to  build  you  up,  and  give  you  an  inheritance 
among  all  them  that  are  sanctified."  Thus  was 
the  apostle's  good-bye  then,  and  thus  also  the 
teaching  of  his  Epistle  four  years  after.  If  they 
fall,  what  a  fall,  for  in  that  Epistle  are  "heights" 
indeed !    They  are  *  ^  in  Christ ' ' — and  where  is  He  1 


*^THOU  AET  FALLEN''  47 

**Far  above  all  heavens!"  said  Paul  in  his  good- 
bye. The  word  of  God  *4s  able  ...  to  give  you 
an  inheritance  among  all  them  that  are  sancti- 
fied." Here  we  behold  them  as  those  who  are 
raised  with  Christ  in  the  heavenlies,  in  whom 
they  have  obtained  an  inheritance.  Here  too  they 
are  sanctified.  Here  there  is  not  a  maybe  about 
being  *^ built  up,"  for  they  **are  built  upon  the 
Foundation. ' ' 

Ah !  Love  is  writing  all  this  about  the  heights 
of  their  calling,  for  Love  trembles  at  the  possible 
depths  of  their  fall.  Love  writes:  **Eemember 
.  .  .  that  ...  ye  were  without  Christ  .  .  .  but 
now  are  made  nigh  by  the  blood  of  Christ. "  It  is 
the  sad-eyed  Love  that  pens  the  words,  **  Remem- 
ber .  .  .  thou  art  fallen!" 

Yes,  Love  points  out  the  weak  spot,  the  vulner- 
able entrance  for  the  enemy.  This  above  all 
things  exercised  Paul  on  their  behalf.  It  brought 
him  literally  to  his  knees:  and  he  who  had  four 
years  ago  on  the  sea-shore  '^kneeled  down"  and 
prayed  with  them,  is  still  in  his  Epistle,  not  once, 
but  often  kneeling  for  them.  **For  this  cause 
I  bow  my  knees  .  .  .  that  ye  may  .  .  .  know  the 
love  of  Christ."    Having  revealed  to  them  how 


48  APOSTOLIC  CHEISTIANITY 

high  God  had  placed  them,  Paul  prays  that  He 
may  keep  them  nigh  and  high;  and  he  sees  in 
Love  the  only  power  to  do  this. 

Love  had  raised  them,  and  only  their  realisation 
of  what  Love  had  done  wonld  make  them  in  their 
lives  ^* raised"  men  and  women.  ^'Good  works" 
must  not  be  first,  but  the  burning  fire  of  faith  that 
God — before  the  world  began — ^had  resolved  that 
they  should  be  His  workmanship,  even  His 
(emphatic  pronoun).  And  in  true  sequence  the 
*  ^  workmanship ' '  of  Love  produced  ' '  the  works ' '  of 
love.  They  were  to  be  rooted  in  Love,  for  they 
were  ^Hrees  of  the  Lord's  planting."  They  must 
be  grounded  in  it,  for  other  foundation  can  no  man 
lay.  They  were  to  know  its  height,  to  which  they 
were  raised,  by  remembering  the  depth  from  which 
Love  had  brought  them  up  in  the  time  past  of 
their  life.  Love's  breadth,  too,  they  were  to  know, 
by  the  wide-open,  encircling  arms ;  and  its  length 
in  seeking  them  when  ^^afar  off,"  stranger  and 
aliens.  Yes,  that  they  might  know  all  this — such 
was  Paul's  prayer. 

Ill 

And  now  more  than  twenty  years  have  come 
and  gone,  and  we  reach,  not  the  1st  Epistle  of 


^^THOU  AET  FALLEN ''  49 

Height,  but  the  2nd  Epistle  of  Depth.  Paul  says 
they  are  risen ;  John  says  they  are  fallen. 

Alas,  and  they  think  far  otherwise.  To  fall 
and  not  to  know  it — what  falling  like  that.  To 
labour  and  yet  after  long  years  to  do  nothing, 
really  nothing  in  Love's  eyes — ^what  slavery  like 
that !  And  who  so  lovingly  records  a  cup  of  cold 
water  as  Love?  Yes,  this  splendidly  orthodox 
church  has  every  chance  in  Love's  hand,  but  Love 
knows  her  not. 

Oh,  yes,  it  might  be  said,  there  is  love  in 
Ephesus,  and  probably  plenty  of  it,  too.  But  it 
is  love  in  word,  and  not  in  deed.  It  is  that  which 
says,  *'We  work,  therefore  we  love;  we  speak 
with  angePs  tongues,  therefore  we  have  love.'' 

''Now,"  saith  the  Lord  of  love,  with  the  jealous 
eyes  like  a  flame  of  fire,  *'I  have  one  long  debit 
against  you  that  consumes  all  your  credit." 

Poor  insolvent  Ephesus!  All  the  coin  of  her 
spiritual  commerce  is  revealed  to  be  spurious.  It 
never  saw  the  mint  of  Love :  Love  sees  not  its  own 
image  thereon. 

The  Lord  perforce  recalls  them  to  the  first  love, 
that  would  produce  the  first  works.  The  Love 
that  raised  them  to  the  heights,  is  following  them 
to  the  depths.     They  are  fallen,  but  Love  will  raise 


50  APOSTOLIC  CHKISTIANITY 

them.  But  twenty  long  years  of  labour  must  go 
overboard.  The  test  of  breaking  with  the  past 
will  be  in  saying,  not,  **  Reward  me  for  those 
twenty  years,''  but,  **Lord,  I  thank  Thee  Thou 
hast  forgotten  them!" 

It  is  not  *'Thou  art  fallen,"  but  ** Remember 
from  whence  thou  art  fallen. ' '  What  a  difference 
this  makes !  Ephesus  is  not  asked  to  look  down, 
for  she  is  down.  '* Remember  from  whence,"  is 
the  Lord's  word  for  '^Look  up!"  And  no  won- 
der, for  they  are  going  up,  oh,  so  soon! 


VI 

PAUL  NOT  ASHAMED— AND  WHY 


God  has  millions  of  worlds  that  rush  to  do  His 
bidding  hut  only  now  and  then  can  He  find  a 
man  He  can  trust. 

*  *  * 

After  the  battle  of  Marengo  Napoleon  struck  a 
medal  for  his  soldiers.  On  one  side  he  put  the 
name  of  the  battle;  on  the  other  he  inscribed  the 
three  proud  words:  i  was  there. 


PAUL   NOT  ASHAMED — AND  WHY 

Rom.  i,  16 

The  fact  of  Paul  twice  declaring  that  he  is  not 
ashamed  of  his  message,  at  once  reminds  us  that 
he  is  writing  to  the  capital  of  the  whole  world. 
But  provincial  Paul  is  a  citizen  of  heaven,  and 
hence  all  his  shame  has  been  rolled  away  at  the 
cross.  A  citizen  of  glory,  this  Paul  can  literally 
look  down  upon  the  metropolis  of  the  Caesars. 
Eight  well  he  knew  that  those  Eomans  of  the 
capital  thought  themselves  the  cream  of  earth's 
sons.  Hence,  doubtless,  that  black  yet  faithful 
third  chapter  of  Eomans.  With  what  withering 
plainness  does  Paul  expose  all  their  boasted  prec- 
edence in  that  famous  photograph  of  the  common 
corrupting  fall ! 

I 

But  again.  Paul  is  not  ashamed  of  his  Gospel, 
because  looking  down  upon  it  all  is  God's  ^* blessed 
and  only  Potentate,"  into  whose  kingdom  he  has 
been  translated.    And  all  this  in  the  dialect  of 

63 


54  APOSTOLIC  CHRISTIANITY 

Holy  Scripture  means  that,  of  course,  Paul  is 
above  it  all  too!  So  dear,  indeed,  was  this  truth 
to  Paul's  heart,  and  so  vital  to  his  joy,  that  he 
was  forced  even  to  remind  his  beloved  brethren  at 
Jerusalem  of  it,  in  almost  blunt  terms.  There,  in 
the  *^City  of  the  Great  King,'*  his  dear  kinsmen 
in  God  were  deeply  entrenched  behind  the  dignity 
of  a  solemn  antiquity.  Hence,  doubtless,  Paul's 
disclaimer  in  Galatians.  With  a  godly  concern 
for  his  heavenly  citizenship,  he  declares  that  ^^he 
went  not  up  to  Jerusalem  to  those  that  were 
apostles  before  him. ' '  Nor  have  we  long  to  wait 
for  his  inner  reason  for  this  seemingly  austere 
action.  Further  on  we  read:  **I  went  not  up 
to  Jerusalem,"  because  '^the  Jerusalem  which  is 
ABOVE  is  the  mother  of  us  all."  The  higher  we 
ascend,  the  broader  our  outlook,  and  Paul  had  a 
missionary  gospel  for  all,  because  he  went  high 
enough.  His  headquarters  were  Heaven,  not 
Jerusalem.  To  Paul,  Foreign  Missions  are  a 
mere  matter  of  altitude.  If  we  live  little  parish- 
pump  lives  then  our  skyline  is  contracted.  But 
if  on  the  contrary  we  are  seated  with  Christ  in 
the  Heavenlies  then  looking  down  from  His  view- 
point the  whole  earth  as  a  lost  unit  is  in  full  and 
fair  view. 


PAUL  NOT  ASHAMED  55 

Thus  it  is  we  need,  in  reading  Romans,  to  keep 
ever  before  us  the  *  *  envelope  address  ' ' :  *  ^  To  the 
Romans/'  For,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  we  have 
only  to  appeal  to  the  ordinary  schoolboy  for  the 
dark,  latent  meaning  lying  behind  Paul's  boast: 
*^I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  for 
it  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation/^  This 
mention  of  the  ^* power  of  God"  is  surely  in  con- 
trast with  the  brutal  Roman  power.  As  an  echo 
from  the  schoolroom,  do  we  not  recall  the  bloody 
fact  that  of  all  the  names  in  the  Commentaries 
of  Ccesar  not  three  of  them  died  in  their  beds! 
Power,  yes,  your  Roman  had  plenty  of  it:  but  it 
was  unto  destruction,  not  unto  salvation.  Hence 
this  sanguine  Paul,  advancing  as  he  is  upon 
Rome,  the  world's  vast  charnel-house,  he,  0!  he  is 
not  ashamed  of  the  power  unto  salvation,  A  re- 
cent independent  witness  more  than  endorses  all 
this.  Summing  up  in  three  lines  the  record  of 
these  Caesars,  he  says :  **The  bloody  catalogue  is 
so  complete,  so  nearly  comprises  all  whose  names 
are  mentioned  (in  the  Commentaries),  that  it 
strikes  the  reader  with  almost  comic  horror!" 
And  thus  it  is,  surely,  that  we  find  Paul  telling 
the  Romans  that  **the  wages  of  sin  is  death/'  In 
that  one  unerring  line,  behold,  the  Divine  reason 


56  APOSTOLIC  CHEISTIANITY 

of  their  blood-red  history!  But  the  very  black- 
ness of  the  metropolitan  background  only  added 
to  the  Pauline  incentive  (how  like  God!)  to  paint 
the  Gospel  of  the  glory  of  the  blessed  God  in 
fresh,  unfading  colours.  **I,  oh,  I  am  not 
ashamed  of  the  power  unto  salvation."  Surely 
the  Divine  innuendo  here  is  that  these  Eomans 
might  well  enough  be  ashamed  of  their  charnel- 
house  power  that  made  a  desert  and  called  it 

peace. 

II 

Our  immediate  concern,  however,  is  with  Paul's 
declaration  that  he  is  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel 
of  God  even  in  the  roaring  capital  of  the  Caesars. 
Leading  up  to  this  declaration  of  his,  we  pass 
phrase  after  phrase  all  embodying  the  apostolic 
longing  to  reach  Eome,  the  real  centre  of  the 
world.  For  every  road  led  to  Eome.  It  was  the 
strategic  point  to  reach  all  comers.  You  will  no- 
tice, too,  one  phrase  in  particular  that  reveals  the 
utter  abandonment  of  the  man  to  this  deep  de- 
sire :  Now,  he  says,  if  by  any  means  I  may  come 
to  you.  Note,  we  repeat,  the  utter  and  holy 
audacity  of  the  man ;  It  is  not  to  Eome,  the  great 
London  of  the  Empire,  he  wants  to  go.  It  is  not 
provincial  Paul  wanting  to  see  the  sights  of  that 


PAUL  NOT  ASHAMED  57 

Babylon;  oh,  no.  But  it  is,  indeed,  a  man 
enamoured  of  Christ's  last  command:  ''utter- 
most parts  of  the  earth'';  a  true  missionary  who 
sees  that  by  reaching  the  world's  centre  he  is 
therefore  in  true  equidistance  to  the  whole  cir- 
cumference. Paul  was  only  following  God's  lead. 
That  Gospel  entrusted  to  the  apostle  in  steward- 
ship revealed  a  God  equally  enamoured  of  all  the 
lost  sons  of  men.  Nay,  the  more  remote  the  lost 
soul  the  more  desirable  to  Love.  Only  ' '  everlast- 
ing Love"  could  declare  that  the  last  shall  be 
first.  And  thus  we  see  here  in  Paul's  longing 
Eomewards — Eome  the  centre  of  the  world's  cir- 
cumference!— a  pictorial  representation  of  the 
Love  that  so  loved  the  world!  A  Koman  Caesar 
alone  it  was  who  could  command  that  the  whole 
world  should  be  enrolled.  Hence  Paul's  resolve 
to  reach  the  metropolis. 

Watch  the  holy  abandonment  of  the  phrase, 
'^Ifhy  any  means, ' '  Paul  signing  a  blank  cheque ! 
Paul  offering  to  go  to  Rome  either  as  steerage 
passenger  or  cabin.  Paul  with  no  personal  ''axe 
to  grind,"  but  content  to  endure  all  things  for 
*'the  elect's  sake." 

Did  he  mean  it,  this  Paul,  and  this  ''by  any 
means'"?    Yes,  he  meant  it  so  deeply  that  God 


58  APOSTOLIC  CHEISTIANITY 

took  him  at  his  word.  God  sent  him  steerage 
passenger  in  a  chain !  No  I  God  did  not  take  ad- 
vantage of  Paul's  warm-heartedness  so  manifest 
in  the  very  openness  of  his  offer.  But  God  saw 
that  the  Cross  would  best  be  illustrated  by  a  chain. 
A  test  this  for  the  Paul  who  said,  **I  am  not 
ashamed."  Will  the  chain  cause  a  blush?  will  the 
chain  shut  his  mouth?  Far  otherwise.  **The 
offence  of  the  Cross"  was  Paul's  glory;  '* boast" 
is  the  word  he  uses  again  and  again  to  show  that 
the  chain  of  iron  is  a  chain  of  gold. 

in 

**I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel. "  How  often 
the  sentence  is  torn  from  its  context;  how  often 
people  miss  the  point  that  the  apostle  only  reaches 
it  in  Eom.  i.  after  elaborately  explaining  that  he 
longs  to  have  a  prosperous  journey  to  come  unto 
them.  Precisely  as  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  has 
written  unto  us  a  whole  New  Testament  pending 
His  coming  again,  so,  too,  Paul  could  say,  as  the 
Christ  in  essence  says  concerning  the  whole  New 
Testament:  ** These  things  I  write  unto  you, 
hoping  to  come  quickly." 

In  Africa,  the  land  of  the  bondslave,  what  is  the 


PAUL  NOT  ASHAMED  59 

simple  and  luminous  meaning  of  the  word 
'^ slave''?  Why,  obviously,  ^*a  person  who  has 
no  power  over  his  own  body.''  And  surely  this 
is  Paul's  point  in  leading  off  with  his  first,  *^Paul, 
a  bond-slave  of  Jesus  Christ."  Paul,  the  man 
who  has  no  power  over  his  own  body.  And  is  not 
this  Paul's  point  when  he  further  on  urges  other 
people  concerning  their  bodies?  **I,  Paul,  a  man 
who  has  no  power  over  his  own  body — Paul,  bond- 
servant of  Christ^ — I  beseech  you  present  your 
bodies  a  living  sacrifice."  Let  us  never  forget  it, 
then,  when  we  quote  the  phrase  so  glibly.  Paul 's 
proof  that  he  was  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel  was 
ever  at  hand  in  his  readiness  (**I  am  ready")  to 
go  to  the  earth's  ends  with  God's  Gospel. 

How  often  do  we  hear  nowadays  of  men  who 
shout  Paul !  Paul !  yet  do  not  the  things  that  Paul 
did.  The  writer  has  just  glanced  anxiously  at  the 
indexes  of  eight  annual  volumes  of  a  paper  wholly 
given  up  to  the  study  of  Paul's  Gospel.  Like  a 
slap  in  the  face  came  the  discovery  that  not  once 
in  all  these  volumes  have  you  a  clear  shout  for 
the  Gospel  to  be  preached  to  the  uttermost  parts 
of  the  earth.  Yet  Paul's  ^^ mystery"  is  nothing  if 
it  is  not  to  *4et  all  men  know"  it.    Paul's  Gospel 


60  APOSTOLIC  CHEISTIANITY 

was  by  ^  ^  the  commandment  of  the  everlasting  God 
made  known  to  all  nations' \f  By  all  means  let  us 
say  Paul!  Paul!  but  let  us  be  followers  of  him, 
even  as  also  he  was  of  Christ. 


vn 

A  EOYALLY  REVISED  VERSE 


^^  There  are  two  ways  of  looking  at  the  coming 
of  the  Lord.  If  I  he  in  the  constant  spirit  of 
worship  within  the  veil,  according  to  Hebrews,  I 
shall  see  the  future  as  does  Christ.  Over  1800 
years  ago  He  said,  *I  come  quickly.'  And 
whereas,  in  point  of  desire,  I  put  nothing  what- 
ever between  that  object  and  my  soul,  because 
Christ  puts  nothing;  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  if 
you  ask  whether  the  fervency  of  my  love  to  the 
Lord  and  the  brightness  of  that  hope  are 
diminished,  because  I  see  that  He  must  take  time 
to  make  that  coming  worthy  of  Himself,  I  sa/y, 
No:    He  waits  patiently,  and  so  do  I.'' 

R.  C.  Chapman. 


vn 

A  ROYALLY  REVISED  VERSE 

^'Tlie  Lord  direct  your  hearts  into  the  love  of  God, 
and  into  the  patience  of  Christ.'^ — 2  Thess.  iii.  5  (R.V.) 

Remembering  as  we  do  how  life's  joy  and  in- 
centive is  pivoted  on  the  love  of  God,  it  can  con- 
ceivably be  never  amiss  to  send  ont  the  old  call, 
'* Behold,  what  manner  of  love!"  But  herein  is 
love,  not  that  we  loved  God  but  that  He  loved  us 
with  a  love  that  would  not  let  us  go.  His  love 
to  us,  not  our  love  to  Him  is  the  theme. 

Therefore  the  immediate  concern  of  these  lines 
is  to  claim  (and  reclaim!)  for  the  love  of  God  a 
long-lost  proof -text.  Where  the  R.  V.  has  revised 
let  us  revise  too.  For  God's  love  in  the  immu- 
table fact  of  life:  not  our  love  to  God,  but  His 
passion  for  us.  And  to  turn  our  backs  upon  the 
objective  Ocean  of  Love  to  be  engrossed  with  the 
subjective  drop  in  our  cold  hearts,  is  surely  to 
jeopardise  joy. 

Yet  even  thus  has  Paul's  charge  to  the  Thes- 
salonians  been  distorted.    We  believe  memory  is 

63 


64  APOSTOLIC  CHRISTIANITY 

not  a  fault  in  suggesting  that  following  the  er- 
roneus  A.  V.  this  Pauline  phrase  has  been  per- 
sistently pressed  as  urging  a  deeper  subjective 
realisation  of  the  love  of  God,  and  charging  them 
to  be  more  warm  of  heart  and  more  aflame  with 
love.  That  such  a  meaning  is  quite  foreign  to  the 
context  can  be  proudly  proved  for  the  loyal  love 
of  these  Thessalonians  is  not  at  all  in  question. 
Not  their  love  to  God  is  the  theme,  but  God's 
love  to  them :  '  ^  The  Lord  direct  your  hearts  into 
the  love  of  God."  For  the  entering  of  their 
hearts  into  God's  love  is  not  at  all  the  same  sweet 
thing  as  the  love  of  God  entering  into  their  hearts. 
His  objective  love  is  an  ocean,  and  our  subjective 
capacity  is  a  drop :  And  Paul's  call,  we  shall  see, 
is  to  look  off  to  the  boundless  and  soundless 
ocean.     Not  to  look  in  at  the  dreary  drop ! 

I 

This  is  how  we  prove  the  point. 

That  the  context  reveals  hearts  of  love  at  Thes- 
salonica  is  easily  evident,  for  they  were  com- 
mended for  their  ^^ labour  of  love."  Had  not 
Timothy  been  a  witness  of  it  all?  Finding  Paul 
in  Athens,  had  he  not  delivered  to  the  Apostle 
the   ''glad   tidings"   of  their   love?    Why   then 


A  EOYALLY  REVISED  VESSE         65 

suggest  carnal  coldness  of  heart?  Surely  PauPs 
call  is  both  old  and  bold,  I  mean,  the  Matthew 
xxviii.  missionary  call  to  look  off  to  God's 
love  in  its  ocean  aspect.  Quoth  happy  lit- 
tle Paul,  *^God  so  loved  the  world,  and  not 
Thessalonica  only!"  The  Lord  direct  your 
parochial  hearts  into  that  ocean  of  His  where 
*^me''  is  merged  in  **all."  To  say  **God 
loves  me,"  is  to  testify  that  you  are  a  trophy  of 
grace ;  but  the  saint  never  lived  who  did  not  reach 
this  ME  through  the  gateway  of  God's  whoso- 
ever.  And  what  a  graceless  love  that  forgets  the 
door  by  which  it  entered  the  house. 

Now  just  here,  probably,  we  strike  the  whole 
tender  point  in  PauPs  desire  for  these  loving  but 
too  localised  Thessalonians.  Their  very  love  to 
Christ  and  longing  desire  for  His  return  had  the 
momentary  effect  of  causing  them  to  forget  the 
vast  salvation-for-all  scope  of  God's  love.  In 
their  longing  love  they  wanted  Him,  oh,  so  quickly 
to  come.  Theirs  had  been  sorrow  upon  sorrow 
and  who  could  wipe  away  tears  like  Himself? 
Hence  in  their  very  love  to  Him  they  had  mo- 
mentarily forgotten  the  world-wide  extent  of  the 
hole  of  that  pit  from  whence  they  had  been  dug. 
Therefore  it  is  Paul— Paul  the  itinerant  mission- 


66  APOSTOLIC  CHRISTIANITY 

ary — sends  in  on  them  this  rousing  reminding 
call.  He,  Paul,  is  out  in  the  dark  night  of  Asia 
Minor,  and  they  (watch  this!)  are  residents  of  a 
well  evangelised  town.  This  we  see  from  2  Thess. 
iii.  1:  *^  Brethren  pray  for  us  that  the  word  of 
the  Lord  may  have  free  course,  with  me'*  (out 
here  in  the  darkness!)  *^even  as  it  is  with  you." 
The  Lord  direct  your  hungry-for-His-retum 
hearts  into  the  vast  love  of  God,  for  God  so  loved 
the  world  and  not  paltry  Thessalonica  only.  Just 
think  a  moment,  says  Paul:  and  think,  oh!  yes, 
think  tremendously  the  human  heart  will  in  this 
holy  particular.  Think  it  out,  heart  of  mine, 
silently  and  soberly  to  the  one  inexorable  con- 
clusion. If  these  loving  saints  of  the  first  century 
had  had  their  wish,  then  truly  the  church,  which 
is  Christ's  body,  would  have  been  a  small  enough 
thing!  The  vast  fields  of  Gentiledom  were  as  yet 
all  unsown  with  gospel  seed,  let  alone  unreaped. 
Where  was  Europe  then!  And  there  stood  the 
men  of  Thessalonica  gazing  up  into  heaven,  for- 
getful for  the  moment  of  the  departing  Christ's 
command:  *'Ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto  Me.  .  .  . 
unto  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth ! ' '  The  Lord 
direct  your  loving  hearts  into  the  love  of  God, 
who  so  loved  the  wide,  weary  World  as  a  lost 


A  EOYALLY  REVISED  VERSE         67 

unit.  Every  hour  the  craving  cry  rang  up  to 
High  Heaven  from  trusting-but-tried  Thcs- 
salonica,  *'  Come,  Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly!" 
And  as  an  eager  echo  down  came  the  challeng- 
ing command  of  Christ:  "Go,  my  church,  go  ye 
into  all  the  world!"  Yes,  He  will  come  after  the 
Church  goes. 

Watch  well  that  word  **into."  The  idea  surely 
seems  to  be  the  scope  and  breadth  of  God's  love. 
For  this  is  the  preposition  used  in  Acts  to  picture 
the  ship 's  gig  being  let  down  into  the  sea.  This, 
too,  the  word  that  shows  us  the  wheat  thrown 
into  the  stormy  wave.  And  so,  too,  with  their 
loving  hearts.  The  Lord  direct  your  hearts  into 
the  ocean  of  love,  for  ye  are  not  straitened  in 
God  but  in  yourselves.  Surely  there  is  a  very 
grave  yet  gracious  hint  in  all  this.  They  wanted 
to  be  with  Him  where  He  was  in  the  glory,  for- 
getful of  the  fact  that  Christ  had  pledged  His 
presence  with  them  even  unto  the  end  of  the  age. 
How  then  could  they  be  with  Christ  in  Heaven 
before  the  end  of  the  age  if  Christ  had  surely 
said  He  would  be  with  them  even  unto  the  end 
of  the  age! 

Or  put  it  this  way.  Did  not  our  living  loving 
Lord  anticipate  this  tedious  tendency  of  the  human 


68  APOSTOLIC  CHRISTIANITY 

lieart  in  his  last  great  prayer?  For  almost  in 
the  same  breath  when  he  said,  Father,  I  will  that 
they  also  ,  .  ,  he  with  Me  where  I  am''  did  He 
not  wisely  say,  ^^7  pray  not  that  Thou  shouldest 
take  them  out  of  the  world/' 

II 

The  best  test  of  the  truth  of  this  exegesis,  how- 
ever, will  be  found  in  remembering  that  Paul's 
is  really  a  twin-charge  to  the  Thessalonians. 
**The  Lord  direct  your  hearts  (1)  into  the  love 
of  God  and  (2)  into  the  patience  of  Christ,  Here 
again  where  the  R.  V.  has  revised  let  us  revise 
too!  And,  surely,  the  whole  truth  is  out  at  last, 
for  this  is  not  our  ^^ patient  waiting  for  Christ," 
just  as  the  former  was  not  more  of  our  love  to  God. 
I  repeat,  precisely  as  at  first  the  Apostle  threw 
them  back  on  the  love  of  God  to  them,  and  not 
theirs  to  Him ;  even  so,  finer  far  than  any  paltry, 
patient  waiting  of  ours  for  Christ,  is  His  patient 
waiting  for  us.  Yes,  us,  all  of  us;  not  **us"  of 
tedious  Thessalonica  only!  Depend  upon  it: 
Christ's  patience,  at  any  rate,  is  going  to  do  its 
perfect  work,  in  order  that  we,  the  body  of  Christ 
as  a  truly  terrestrial  unit,  may  be  perfect  and 
entire,  wanting  nothing.    Not  a  hoof  will  be  left 


A  ROYALLY  REVISED  VERSE         69 

behind !  We,  the  mere  sowers,  may  be  impatient. 
And  to  curtly  command  us  to  be  patient  certainly 
does  not  mend  matters.  Hence  Paul's  upward 
point  yonder  to  the  patient  Christ  at  God's  right 
hand,  *'from  henceforth  expecting."  He,  the 
true  Husbandman,  has  long  patience.  Surely, 
then  the  sowers  impatient  of  the  heat  of  the  day 
can  find  calm  and  strength  in  that  long  loyal 
patience.  For  note  this  keenly:  **The  field  is 
the  world/'  Long  patience  for  a  large  field. 
Ah !  what  an  enormous  disparity  we  find  between 
the  loving  Christ's  long  patience  and  our  per- 
verse petulance.  He  has  long  patience  **for  the 
precious  fruit  of  the  earth";  not  merely  patience 
unto  precious  sowing,  but  patience  unto  precious 
reaping.  If  the  love  of  God  did  the  splendid  sow- 
ing, then  the  long  patience  of  God  will  royally 
reap  the  fruit.  *'Be  patient,  therefore,  (what  a 
logical  conjunction!)  brethren,  unto  the  com- 
ing of  the  Lord:  behold  the  husbandman  (i.  e., 

HE  WHO   IS  MOST  INTERESTED  IN  IT  ALL!)    Wait  for 

the  precious  fruit  of  the  earth,  and  hath  long 
patience.  Be  ye  (note  the  dig!)  also  patient." 
** Precious  fruit,"  yes,  because  of  ** precious 
blood."  The  patience  of  Christ  will  have  a  per- 
fect work,  and  the  body  of  Christ  as  to  absolutely 


70  APOSTOLIC  CHRISTIANITY 

all  its  members  will  be  perfect  and  entire,  wanting 
nothing.  Himself  it  was  who  went  forth  weeping 
bearing  precious  seed.  Now  He  waiteth  for 
precious  fruit.  ** Precious  seed," — ** tasted  death 
for  every  man."  *' Precious  fruit — ** Preach  in 
oil  the  world  to  every  creature."  Hear,  then, 
the  sum  of  the  whole  matter.  Will  the  God  of 
love  do  less  in  Grace  than  He  does  in  Law? 
Surely  this  is  a  pardonable  query  just  here  where 
the  Apostle  challenges  their  hearts  as  to  being  in 
the  love  of  God.  The  God  who  visits  iniquity 
^*unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation,"  will  He 
not  also  visit  even  a  third  and  fourth  generation 
in  grace?  The  husbandman  hath  long  loyal 
patience.  Has  He  not  visited  Christendom  unto 
even  a  thirtieth  and  fortieth  generation  in  grace  ? 
Thus  it  is  the  clamant  calls  come  in  on  us 
from  the  earth's  four  comers.  Pray  for  us  in  the 
dark  comers  of  the  earth,  brethren,  that  the  Word 
of  the  Lord  may  have  free  course  and  be  glori- 
fied, even  as  it  is  with  you  in  beloved  gospel  lands. 
**Free  course"  means  that  it  might  reach  the  ut- 
termost man  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth. 


vni 

"THE  TIMES  OF  THE  GENTILES" 


When  the  saintly  Fayson  was  dying  he  said, 
*'/  long  to  hand  a  full  cup  of  happiness  to  every 

human  being!" 

*  *  * 

'^  Until  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  he  fulfilled. 

Luke. 

*  «  # 

"7  would  not,  brethren,  that  ye  should  he 
ignorant  of  ,  .  .  the  fullness  of  the  Gentiles, 

Paul. 

*  #  * 

*^The  riches  of  the  world  .  .  .  the  riches  of 
the  Gentiles. 

Paul. 


VIII 


Luke  xxi.  24 

Might  we  not  say  of  this  expression,  used  by  the 
Holy  Ghost,  that  it  bears  on  the  face  of  it  God's 
controversy  with  ns?  For  note  well,  it  is  the 
Gentiles;  not  merely  some  select  specimens  of 
Gentiledom.  Love's  arms  encircle  the  globe,  and 
Love's  thoughts  are  **to  all  generations"  (Ps. 
xxxiii.  11).  The  scope  of  God's  thoughts  and 
purposes  are  as  the  scope  of  His  eye — '^He  be- 
holdeth  all  the  sons  of  men."  And  the  scope  of 
God's  eye  is  to  be  the  scope  of  our  energy.  **He 
f  ashioneth  their  hearts  alike ! ' '  cries  the  Psalmist. 
And  God's  evangelist  replies,  **For  like  doom, 
comes  like  gospel!" 

I 

And  now  let  us  ask  a  very  pertinent  question. 

Why,  oh  why,  this  plural — ^^ Times,"  governing 

this    other    plural    *^ Gentiles"?     Doth    not    the 

Holy  Ghost  still  say,  *^Now  is  the  accepted  time"? 

73 


74  APOSTOLIC  CHEISTIANITY 

To  a  sinner  Grod  guarantees  not  ^'times''  but 
only  His  holy  time — ^^Now.'' 

Ah!  here,  indeed,  behold  the  long-suffering  of 
God.  He  in  sovereignty  can  ever  forestall  man 
in  responsibility.  Does  man  in  lethargy  fail  to 
pass  God's  ^'Now'^  around  the  globe!  Love 
will  not  be  content  with  merely  a  sample  of 
Gentiledom.  If  Western  languages  have  hymned 
Love's  praises,  Love  will  have  a  song  from  the 
remotest  and  most  impoverished  dialects  of 
farthest  lands.  Yes,  the  **last  shall  be  first'' 
to  Love;  and  out  of  the  mouths  of  the  babes 
and  sucklings  who  use  earth's  poorest  tongues, 
God  will  ** perfect  praise."  Thus,  then,  will  God 
overcome  the  apathy  that  mocks  His  purposes"; 
'^The  Gentiles"  shall  all  have  their  *' times"; 
and,  however  varied  the  Gentiles,  so  varied  shall 
be  their  times. 

On  that  old,  happy  day  of  our  lives — the  ''now" 
day,  when  we  passed  from  death  unto  life — ^how 
open-armed  God's  *'A11"  and  God's  ''Whoso- 
ever" were  to  our  souls.  And  now  God  chargeth 
us  by  that  primal  day  of  our  joy  to  gladden  other 
lands  and  people  with  the  All  that  gladdened  us 
as  the  guests  of  God. 

We  may  here  recall  the  phrase  in  Acts  as  to 


*^THE  TIMES  OF  THE  GENTILES'^     75 

God's  visiting  *^tlie  Gentiles  to  take  out  of  tliem 
a  people  for  His  name.''  This  visit  of  the  Lord 
our  God  will  be  co-terminous  with  the  glorious 
** times  of  the  Gentiles."  Little  does  man  seem 
to  realise  how  well  the  God  of  Nature  will  fulfil 
His  visit  of  Grace.  He  who  in  Nature  riseth  up 
early  to  flood  with  light  the  far  unknown  waters 
of  some  hidden  inland  sea,  will  He  not  visit  every 
rood  of  this  lost  earth  with  His  gospel?  **Are 
not  My  ways  equal?"  saith  the  God  of  Nature 
and  of  Grace.  And  David,  speaking  of  the  earth 
as  a  far-rolling  unity  of  hill  and  dale,  island  and 
continent,  saith,  **Thou  visitest  the  earth.  .  .  . 
Thou  greatly  enrichest  it  with  the  river  of  God, 
which  is  full  of  water.  .  .  .  Thou  crownest  the 
year  with  Thy  goodness."  And  will  God  do  less 
in  Grace  than  He  does  in  Nature?  Will  He  not 
crown  ''the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord"  with 
goodness  too  1  Nay,  He  will  crown  it  with  Grace ; 
even  as  He  crowns  every  three  hundred  and  sixty- 
five  days  of  time  with  Goodness. 

On  that  day  when  the  last  stone  from  the 
world's  last  and  remotest  comer  is  brought  into 
the  building,  then  shall  He  crown  the  acceptable 
year  with  His  grace.  For  thus  saith  the  Lord 
to  His  quarrymen,  who  realise  indeed  what  **a 


76  APOSTOLIC  CHEISTIANITY 

great  mountain''  this  belting  the  globe  with  His 
gospel  is — ^'O  great  mountain!  .  .  .  thou  shalt 
become  a  plain :  and  He  shall  bring  forth  the  head- 
stone thereof  with  shoutings,  crying,  Grace,  grace 
unto  it!" 

To  Zerubbabel,  God's  temple-builder,  lo!  here 
was  indeed  very  much  of  mountain  and  very  lit- 
tle of  temple.  Faith  only  could  in  vision  see  the 
rugged  mountain-heap  quarried  into  a  plain. 
''The  Temple  has  swallowed  the  mountain,"  says 
Faith ;  and  the  final  headstone  will  mean  the  out- 
burst of  God's  Hallelujah  chorus,  **  Grace! 
Grace !  unto  it ! "  Yet,  not  by  might  nor  by  power 
shall  it  all  be  accomplished — and  who  dare  de- 
spise the  day  of  small  things? 

n 
In  the  great  majority  of  the  uses  of  the  word 
"visit"  in  the  Old  Testament  it  means  stern,  im- 
placable judgment,  the  sword  of  the  Lord  striking 
home  unerringly  and  surely.  Yea,  unto  the  third 
and  fourth  generation  doth  He  visit  the  iniquity 
of  the  fathers.  Yet  this  same  word  tells  us  that 
open-armed  love  will  as  surely  and  individually 
''visit"  every  nook  and  corner  of  a  world  of 
heathendom  as  it  visited  inexorably  in  retribu- 


**THE  TIMES  OF  THE  GENTILES''     77 

tion  for  every  broken  law.  The  argument  from 
Nature  leads  up  to  the  revelation  of  Grace. 
Hence,  too,  Christ's  lovely  name  of  *^The  Day- 
spring  from  on  high."  For  as  the  eastern  skies 
in  all  lands  herald  light  for  all  and  light  in  abun- 
dance, so  too  the  Dayspring  from  on  high  doth 
visit  and  redeem  a  world  lost  in  night. 

Ah,  when  the  Psahnist,  a  thousand  years  before 
the  Cross,  cried,  '^Have  respect  unto  the  Cove- 
nant, FOR  the  dark  places  of  the  earth  are  full  of 
the  habitations  of  cruelty" — ^how  well  did  he 
understand  the  purposes  of  Grace!  Paul  had 
certainly  read  this,  and  God  bade  him  write  some- 
thing very  like  it  in  Romans — ^^  Where  sin 
abounded,  grace  did  much  more  abound!" 
David's  *'for^'  tells  all.  '*Have  respect  unto  the 
Covenant,"  Lord,  which  promises  to  bless  ^*all 
families  of  the  earth,"  for  all  families  are  under 
the  curse.  **The  dark  places  of  the  earth  are 
full  of  the  habitations  of  cruelty,"  therefore 
**have  respect  to  the  Covenant!"  That  God  did 
respect  the  Covenant,  our  tongues  can  tell.  And 
David's  call  comes  back  on  us,  the  faithless  ones. 
Not  **have  respect  to  the  Covenant"  is  the  call; 
but  ^^have  respect  to  the  command!"  David's 
*^for"  of  thousands  of  years  ago  is  still  living 


78  APOSTOLIC  CHEISTIANITY 

and  cogent.    And  where  there  is  sin  abounding 
there  must  we  preach  grace  abounding. 

They  tell  us  of — and  we  have  seen  them — poor, 
dwarfed,  downtrodden  tribes  with  only  glimmer- 
ings of  an  innate  notion  of  their  own  manhood. 
Very,  very  low  in  the  so-called  scale  are  they,  and 
have  as  many  bestial  traits  of  character  as  human. 
'*  Child-nations ' '  is  a  matter-of-fact  exclamation 
of  the  anthropologist,  who  has  merely  to  glance 
at  the  conical  occiput  and  receding  chin.  But 
Christ,  who  comes  to  seek  and  save  the  lost,  says 
in  open-armed  love  to  all  such  **  child-nations ' ' 
—*^ Suffer  the  little  children  to  come!"  Out  of 
the  mouths  of  such  babes  and  sucklings  God  will 
perfect  His  praise.    ''The  last  shall  be  first!" 


BOOK  II 

LORD'S  SUPPEE  EEVERIES 

I 

THIRSTINa  AFTEE  GOD 


^Long  the  blessed  Guide  has  led  me 
By  the  desert  road; 
Now  I  see  the  golden  towers 
City  of  my  God. 
There  amidst  the  love  and  glory 
He  is  waiting  yet; 
On  His  Hands  a  name  is  graven 
He  can  ne'er  forget. 


THIRSTING  AFTER  GOD 

Psalm  xliii 

''As  the  hart  panteth  after  the  water-hrooks, 
So  panteth  my  soul  after  Thee,  0  God. 
My  soul  tJvirsteth  for  God,  for  the  living  God." 

In  this  hart  or  gazelle  of  the  desert,  panting  after 
the  water-hrooks,  we  have  surely  the  crown  of 
all  language  as  an  image  of  sincerity  in  the  sonPs 
thirst  after  God.  What  more  sincere  in  all  the 
earth  than  the  lustrous-eyed  gazelle,  panting  after 
the  water-brooks?  There  is  perfect  desert  in- 
stinct here;  perfect  innocent  need,  going  out  to 
perfect  supply,  and  expressed  so  perfectly  too  in 
that  pant  succeeding  pant. 

Note  the  first  phase.  This,  then,  is  the  old 
obvious  story.  David  has  lost  his  God,  albeit 
God,  his  God,  knoweth  the  desert,  thirsty  way  that 
he  takes. 

And  this  God  {who  Himself  hath  commanded 
for  all  time,  ''If  thine  enemy  thirst,  give  him 

8X 


82  LOED'S  SUPPER  REVERIES 

drink"!)  this  God  will  indeed  be  the  health  of 
David's  countenance,  and  that  right  early. 

God,  then,  has  driven  David  into  the  desert  to 
learn  what  a  God  is  his  God.  To  learn  that  for 
every  pant  of  David's  soul  after  God,  the  living 
God,  there  is  a  deeper,  dearer  pant  in  God's  heart 
after  His  child.  For  this,  surely  seems  the  mean- 
ing of  verse  7:  **Deep  is  calling  unto  deep" — 
the  deep  of  David's  longing  calling  out  to  the 
deep  of  God's  longing;  the  deep  of  David's  empti- 
ness calling  out  to  the  deep  of  Divine  plenitude. 

And  thus  it  must  ever  be,  whether  with  the  soul 
about  to  be  saved  or  the  soul  saved  in  the  long 
ago.  Yes,  thus  indeed,  to  the  intent  that  by  the 
arid  desert  and  its  parched  thirst,  we  may  be  led 
on  and  up  to  Him. 

#  #  #  #  #  #  * 

Watch  the  second  phase.  Thirst,  then,  is  the 
Psalmist's  great  theme,  and  thirst's  eternal  an- 
tithesis— God,  the  Quencher  thereof.  David  is 
indeed  marching  through  night  to  daydawn.  He 
shall  yet  praise  Him. 

This  thirst  has  given  to  David  what  it  gives  to 
the  gazelle — a  clear-eyed  earnestness  that  asks  for 
the  one  thing,  and  for  all  things  in  the  one — **My 
soul  thirsteth  after  God."    Oh,  for  more  of  this 


THIESTING  AFTER  GOD  83 

clear-eyed  transparency,  and  its  language  of  pant. 
The  paradox  of  this  panting  seems  to  be  that 
in  its  wealth  of  expression  there  is  no  language. 
Parched  throat  and  tongue  refuse  to  articulate 
the  soul's  secret.  And  God  is  thereby  spared  a 
reminder  of  Babel,  with  mere  vain  verbiage,  and 
He  hears,  moreover,  the  language  He  loves  so 
wisely  and  so  well — the  souPs  pant.  Garrick 
said  he  would  give  a  hundred  guineas  if  he  could 
say  *^ Oh!''  as  Whitfield  did  it  when  he  held  30,- 
000  spellbound. 

"We  have  said  that  with  this  holy  thirst  going 
out  for  God  there  is  a  deeper  thirst  in  God's  heart 
going  out  for  His  thirsty  child.  This  heart-pant 
we  probably  hear  in  that  arrestive  ^*Ho!"  in 
Isaiah,  when  God  calls  to  the  thirsty.  As  a  good 
Philologist  has  said,  ^  *  The  interjection,  instead  of 
being  a  part  of  speech,  is  indeed  a  whole  speech/' 
What  this  writer  probably  means,  when  his  defini- 
tion is  applied  to  this  **Ho!"  leaving  the  very 
lips  of  God,  is  this,  supremely  this.  There  is  a 
time  when  the  heart  is  too  full  for  words;  when 
out  of  sheer  loving,  yearning,  commiseration  on 
His  part,  comes  forth  that  ^*Ho!"  from  the  lips 
of  God,  springing  out  to  the  soul's  succour. 

Now  watch  phase  three,    David  had  lost  his 


84  LOED'S  SUPPEE  EEVEEIES 

God;  but  how  did  he  lose  Him!  Ah!  this,  too,  is 
an  old  story.  He  had  gone  with  the  multitude; 
he  went  with  them  to  the  house  of  God,  with  the 
voice  of  joy  and  praise,  with  the  multitude  that 
kept  holy  day.  This,  we  say,  is  the  old  obvious 
story,  and  how  easy  it  is  to  be  carried  on  with  the 
*^ Convention"  crowd.  So  easy,  having  caught 
the  infection,  to  praise  God  in  a  crowd.  Oh,  the 
blessedness  of  it,  and  the  fragrant  memories 
thereof ! 

But  all  that  is  past  now  for  David.  A  receding 
memory  leaves  it  almost  below  the  verge. 

God  hath  called  him  out  to  the  thirsty  desert; 
and  though  it  might  seem  far  otherwise,  David 
is  on  the  right  path  now.  For  listen  to  his 
words — **My  soul  thirsteth  for  God!"  Not  for 
the  multitude  keeping  holy  day;  but  for  God,  my 
God. 

All  this  recalls  the  seventh  chapter  of  John's 
Gospel.  The  people  have  been  trooping  up  to 
their  feast — a  multitude  going  up  to  the  house 
of  God — **a  multitude  that  kept  holy  day."  But 
the  Lord  says,  *'I  go  not  up  yet,"  albeit  when 
His  time  was  come  He  went  up,  and  found  them 
** murmuring"  concerning  Him.  And  finally,  **in 
the  last  day,  that  great  day  of  the  feast, ' '  a  great 


THIESTING  AFTEE  GOD  85 

vision  of  the  sadness  of  the  nnsatisfied  multitude 
flooded  His  loving  soul  with  pity.  All  down  the 
centuries  He  saw  them  keeping  their  feasts,  and 
getting  leaner  and  leaner;  becoming  annually- 
drier  and  drier,  like  their  arid  patches  of  Syrian 
desert.  Then,  on  that  great  last  day  of  the  feast, 
Jesus  stood  and  ckied  to  the  multitude  (Isaiah's 
**Ho!''  in  another  form) — ^*If  any  man  thirst, 
let  him  come  unto  Me  and  drink."  In  other 
words,  '*You  have  had  your  feast,  and  what  has 
it  done  for  you?  Nothing:  hut  I  am  the  true 
Feast;  let  him  who  thirsts  come  unto  Me" — ^not 
to  it,  the  feast;  11,  the  creed;  or  aught  else.  He 
came  to  bring  us  to  God,  ''my  God" — ^the  soul's 
exceeding  joy. 

Over  against  the  great  vacumm  of  human  thirst 
God  in  His  day  of  grace  doth  put  Himself  as  the 
Ocean,  and  as  we  drink  with  the  pant  of  sincerity 
we  shall  become  like  Him. 

Now  for  the  final  phase.  How  very  vital 
all  this  must  be,  and  hence,  doubtless,  the  fact 
that  this  is  the  Lord's  last  word  to  us  in  Eev. 
xxii.  First,  in  verse  1,  is  the  river's  source,  far 
up  on  the  highest  height  of  the  everlasting  hills 
— the  throne  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb.    Down  it 


86  LOED'S  SUPPEE  EEVEEIES 

flows  from  the  high  throne  of  God,  that  blessed 
river  of  God,  full  of  water.  And  it  strikes  at 
last  the  dry  and  thirsty  land  where  no  water  is; 
so  whether  from  the  Spirit  and  the  Bride,  or  from 
him  that  heareth,  ^^Come!"  is  the  glad  call,  and 
drink  of  **the  water  of  life  freely." 

Then,  the  weary,  desert  pilgrim,  having  struck 
at  last  the  river  of  God  flowing  across  life's  waste, 
resolves  never  to  leave  it.  He  spends  his  days  of 
sojourning  ascending  its  hallowed  banks.  In  his 
glad  experience,  as  with  Ezekiel's  wonderful 
river,  **  everything  doth  live  whither  the  river 
cometh."  And  finally,  having  drunk  of  it  and 
bathed  in  it,  all  the  way  along,  at  last  he  reaches 
the  city,  out  from  which  it  flows.  It  is  the  city  of 
our  God.  Here  doth  He  dwell.  God  is  known 
in  her  palaces  for  a  refuge.  Here,  too,  is  the 
river,  the  streams  whereof  make  glad  the  city  of 
God ;  *  *  God  is  in  the  midst  of  her ;  she  shall  not  be 
moved." 


n 

THE  PSALM  OF  PSALMS 


None  of  the  ransomed  ever  knew 
How  deep  were  the  waters  crossed 
Or  how  dark  was  the  night 
That  the  Lord  passed  through. 
E'er  He  found  the  sheep  that  was  lost 


n 

THE  PSALM  OF  PSALMS 

A  Lord's  Supper  Meditation 

Psalm  xxiii 

The  sequence  of  thought,  linMng  even  separate 
Psalms,  is  often  their  true  divine  key.  Take,  for 
instance,  David's  bold  *^My"  in  Psalm  xxiii. 
How  simple  it  is  to  see  unerring  explanation  of 
all  this  certainty  of  soul  in  David,  in  that  preced- 
ing vision  of  love  in  Psalm  xxii. !  The  roots  of 
Psalm  xxiii.,  revealing  Jehovah  as  Shepherd, 
strike  back  deep  into  the  sterile  rocky  soil  of 
Psalm  xxii.  The  sheep  can  only  reach  the  green 
pastures  of  Psalm  xxiii.,  because  the  Shepherd 
of  Psalm  xxii.  held  on  His  way  among  the  thorns 
of  the  waste. 

This  is  ever  the  divine  law  of  cross-and-crown 
sequence.  The  sheep  by  the  still  waters  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  look  across  the  gulf  to  the  Psalm 
where  Jehovah  is  a  Shepherd  unto  blood.  The 
thorns  are  over  there  and  the  green  pastures  are 

89 


90  LORD'S  SUPPER  REVERIES 

just  here,  and  *^My"  is  the  adoring  result  of  it  all. 
Surely  in  such  loving  sequence  do  we  find  an  ade- 
quate reason  why  the  ineffable  name  of  Jehovah 
can  be  linked  with  the  name  of  a  lost  sheep  of 
humanity,  lost  David,  or  lost  anybody.  Jehovah 
is  MY  Shepherd. 

Thus  we  learn  that,  Psalm  of  sorrow  though  it 
be,  the  grace  of  God  is  so  exceeding  abundant  at 
the  Cross,  that  we  find  a  pledge  of  the  very  peace 
of  the  sinner  in  the  woes  of  the  Saviour. 

I 

Watch  the  contrast  of  it  all.  Like  David,  the 
Christ,  too,  opens  his  Psalm  of  Calvary  with  a 
'*My."  Twice  does  the  forsaken  cry  ring  out  to 
the  skies.  How  different  David's  **My"  from 
that  of  the  lonely  Christ.  A  heaven  and  a  hell  of 
difference,  surely!  The  deep  of  Christ's  for- 
sakenness calleth  across  to  the  deep  of  David's 
calm  and  joy.  And  this  surely  is  the  divine  in- 
tention concerning  these  Psalms — a  sequence  so 
certain  that  the  sufferings  of  Christ  shall  not 
have  long  to  wait  for  the  glory  that  should  fol- 
low. 

Else  how  shall  we  explain  that  praise-shout: 
* '  The  meek  shall  eat  and  be  satisfied ' '  I    Who  are 


THE  PSALM  OF  PSALMS  91 

the  meek  of  Psalm  xxii.,  if  not  the  green-pastured 
sheep  of  Psalm  xxiii.!  Was  it  not,  indeed,  just 
such  an  adjacent  prophecy  as  this  that  hastened 
David  to  glorify  the  Christ,  by  singing  of  pas- 
tures where  the  meek  and  lowly  sheep  find  rest 
to  their  souls? 

But  watch  this  divine  sequence  a  little  longer. 
David's  **I  shall  not  wanf  finds  its  reason  in 
the  fact  that  Jehovah  is  with  him.  And  so,  too, 
in  the  opposite  experience  of  Christ's  loneliness 
do  we  see  the  utter  poverty  of  the  Cross.  With- 
out God  was  the  sinner,  and  without  God  was 
the  Saviour.  ^*I,  the  Shepherd,  am  poured  out 
like  water, ' '  is  the  source  of  all  that  satiety  in  the 
sheep. 

The  Second  Man,  the  Lord  from  heaven,  was 
His  divine  title ;  yet  He  it  is,  who,  in  dying  pang, 
says :  *  ^  I  am  a  worm,  and  no  man. ' '  Watch,  too, 
those  still  waters  of  tranquillity,  and  listen  in 
contrast  to  the  words  of  Christ's  roaring.  All 
God's  waves  and  billows  are  rolling  over  Him 
there,  in  the  strong  crying  and  tears  of  the  Son 
of  God. 

This  contrast  is  seen  further  down  under  an- 
other figure.  Both  David  and  David's  Lord  have 
a  cup,  and  both  the  cups  are  seen  running  over — 


92  LOED'S  SUPPEB  EEVERIES 

the  red  wine  of  wrath  and  the  red  wine  of  joy. 
No  wonder  that  old  English  word  blood  comes 
from  the  same  root  as  bloom  and  blossom.  With- 
out the  shedding  of  blood  there  is  no — truly  there 
is  no  anything  without  the  shedding  of  blood! 
Far  away  even  in  the  marshes  of  Africa,  the 
tribesmen  say:    ^^No  blood,  no  blossom!*' 

Contrast,  yet  further,  David's  head  anointed 
with  oil  and  the  head  of  the  Christ  of  God 
wounded  with  thorns.  That  soft  oil  and  those 
sharp  thorns  are  so  widely  removed  from  each 
other  that  they  spell  salvation  to  the  sheep. 

There  is  one  phrase,  indeed,  in  this  Psalm 
(almost  Pauline)  which  reveals  how  fully  the 
writer  has  seized  upon  the  fact  that  Christ  is  his 
Saviour-Substitute.  When  David  says:  ^^Yea, 
though  I  walk  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of 
death,"  surely  here  we  have  a  most  naive  hint 
that  if  the  Substitute-Christ  has  so  utterly  died 
for  the  sheep,  then  in  some  glorious  sense  the 
sheep  will  not  die  at  all.  *^ Shall  not  see  death'' 
is  the  note  of  joy  for  the  sheep.  But  for  that 
wounded  Shepherd  of  the  Psalm  of  sorrow  there 
was  no  qualification.  The  inexorable  *^Must  be" 
of  the  Cross  was  ever  before  him.  If  the  worst 
came  to  the  worst,  David  could  say:     **I  will  not 


THE  PSALM  OF  PSALMS  93 

fear."     For  the  lonely  Christ,  the  worst  must 
climax  in  the  worst. 

II 

So,  too,  further  on.  A  divinely  intended  con- 
trast we  see  in  the  two  groups  of  enemies  sur- 
rounding David  and  David's  greater  Son.  There, 
in  the  presence  of  his  enemies,  God  doth  load  his 
table  with  good  things.  God  Himself  prepares 
that  table,  prepares  both  the  time  and  place  for  it, 
to  wit,  when  the  enemies  are  in  full  view.  But 
look  at  the  contrasted  Christ,  hungry  both  in 
body  and  soul !  His  is  the  bread  of  aflBiction ;  His 
the  abjects'  death. 

And  if  David 's  joy  was  the  confounding  of  his 
enemies,  how  deep  the  woe  of  Christ  in  being 
taunted  by  His  foes!  There  they  are,  shooting 
out  the  lip  and  shaking  the  head  in  derision. 
David  gets  the  banquet,  and  David's  Lord  gets 
the  penury  of  Calvary.  Surely  the  lesson  for  us 
is  writ  large  in  all  this  intended  contrast.  Do 
I,  or  do  you,  ever  and  always  take  our  brimming 
cup  to  the  Calvary  cup  and,  before  drinking  even 
one  drop  of  joy,  bless  the  cup  of  woe  that  the 
Shepherd  drank  all  alone  for  us?  These  are 
days,  indeed,  when  whole  books  of  '*  Bible  Con- 
trasts" are  greedily  perused.    How  much  harder 


94  LOED'S  SUPPER  REVERIES 

it  is  for  the  child  of  God  to  bring  his  life  in  its 
faithlessness  into  sharp  contrast  with  the  loving 
ways  of  our  steadfast  God.  As  man  is,  after  all, 
a  comparative  race,  how  well,  indeed,  if  he  learns 
life's  beet  lesson  of  contrasting  God  with  the 
creature. 

David's  last  contrast  is  with  the  Man  of  Sor- 
rows, an  outcast  from  the  Father 's  house — and  he, 
David,  boasting  of  that  house  as  his  dwelling  for 
evermore.  The  homeless  Christ,  out  in  the  cold, 
knocking  at  the  Father's  door!  *'My  God,  my 
God!  Why—?"  Surely  here,  in  the  Christ's 
own  ^^Why?"  we  seem  to  see  why  so  many 
theories  of  the  Atonement  are  in  currency.  A 
dozen  and  more  ** working"  theories  of  Christ's 
Atonement!  Does  not  their  very  number  show 
that  they  have  tried  and  failed  to  fathom  Christ's 
own  perplexed  **Why"?  Oh,  let  this  be  our 
Atonement-watchword  for  Time — this,  too,  for 
Eternity^^'Why!  Why?"  When  you  think 
you  fathom  it,  and  when  you  reduce  it  all  to  a  cold 
syllogism,  then  indeed  are  God's  mighty  fallen. 
Christ's  own  perplexed  ^'Why?"  declares  it  all  to 
be  a  mystery;  and  the  creed  was  never  yet  written 
that  did  not  shut  out  great  deeps  of  atoning  love. 


THE  PSALM  OF  PSALMS  95 

**For  the  love  of  God  is  broader 

Than  the  measure  of  man's  mdnd, 
And  the  heart  of  the  Eternal 
Is  most  wonderfully  hind  J' 

III 
One  word  more  in  conclusion.  It  will  be  seen 
that  there  is  close  affinity  between  the  assurance 
of  David's  **My''  and  the  certainty  contained  in 
his  *^shalP'— ^'I  shall  not  want."  This  is  the 
jubilant  dogma  of  faith.  But  whence  all  the  cer- 
tainty, if  not  in  the  wondrous  blank-cheque  Name, 
^* Jehovah"?  God,  who  in  grace  revealed  His 
own  unutterableness,  could  only  perforce  reveal 
Himself  by  a  Name  which  ever  confounds  the 
grammarians  of  this  world  to  translate.  It  was 
the  Jew  himself  who  best  caught  the  divine  in- 
tention, when,  as  a  nation,  he  resolved  not  even 
to  pronounce  the  Name  Jehovah  at  all.  If  the  in- 
effable Name  is  untranslatable,  said  he,  then  let 
it  be  unpronounceable!  Hence  it  is,  the  best 
translation  in  any  language  of  that  glorious 
Name  will  only  be  the  best  because  it  is  the  most 
unpretentious.  So  full  of  meaning,  indeed,  is  the 
name  Jehovah,  that  human  speech  can  only  call  a 
halt,  and  translate  it,  blank-cheque  fashion:    **I 


96  LOED^S  SUPPER  REVERIES 

AM,  etc.,  etc."  Thus  praise  is  sacredly  silent  in 
Zion  before  Zion's  King. 

And  David's  whole  point  in  his  *^ shall"  lies 
just  here.  If,  says  David,  my  Shepherd  has  such 
a  blank-cheque  Name — **I  AM,  etc.,  etc." — then, 
indeed,  /,  too,  can  issue  a  blank  cheque  on  the 
unknown  future  of  life.  How  often  we  forget 
that  **I  shall  not  want — "  is  as  much  a  blank- 
cheque  as  Jehovah's  own  Name  I  AM — !  If 
God's  name  is  **I  AM,  etc.,  etc.,"  then  Faith's 
echo-shout  can  obviously  only  be:  **I  shall  not 
want,  etc.,  etc." 

Thus  the  deep  of  supply  calleth  out  to  the  deep 
of  need.  If  God  does  so  challenge  Faith  as  to 
His  very  name,  **I  AM,  etc.,  etc."  then  Faith 
gladdens  God's  heart  by  sending  back  the  sister- 
challenge:  ^'I  shall  not  want,  etc.,  etc,!''  For 
when  God  declared  His  unutterable  Name  to  be 
I  AM  THAT  I  AM,  what  is  this  but  just  the 
modernised  I  AM,  etc.,  etc. ! 

The  whole  eternity  of  God  lies  a  great  deep  in 
that  ineffable  Name,  and  the  responsive  *' shall" 
is  faith  striking  its  roots  deep  into  the  eternity  of 
God.  Everlasting  is  His  name,  so  "shall" 
adorns  the  mouth  of  all  God's  children.    We  are 


THE  PSALM  OF  PSALMS  97 

the  lords  of  the  future,  and  another  king  can 
never  arise  who  knows  not  Joseph. 

And  this,  finally,  is  the  real  root  of  David's 
phrase,  ''For  His  Name's  sake/'  His  Name,  the 
blank-cheque  Name,  explains  it  all.  True,  the 
language  of  modern  banking  was  not  known  a 
thousand  years  before  the  Cross.  David's 
equivalent  for  a  cheque-book  was,  in  those  stormy 
days,  "a  Strong  Tower."  And  the  blank  ele- 
ment is  well  enough  seen  in  both.  Does  not 
David,  later  on,  sing  of  the  Name  *^  Jehovah"  as 
a  something  we  can  ^^run  into  and  be  safe"? 
Precisely  as  in  the  stress  of  commerce  a  merchant 
runs  into  his  blank  cheques  to  meet  all  demands 
against  him,  even  so  David  claims  that  Faith  can 
^^run  into"  the  Jehovah-name  as  into  a  strong 
tower.  Surely  it  must  be  blank  enough  if  you 
and  your  needs  can  run  into  it.  Thither  let  us 
flee! 


Ill 

A  EESUEEECTION  REVEEIE 


What  the  Pa/rahle  of  the  Sower  is  to  our 
Lord's  Parables  so,  supremely  so,  is  The  Resur- 
rection to  our  Lord's  Miracles.  Leading  the  long 
Une  of  His  Parables  is  that  first  and  finest 
Parable  of  the  Sower,  for  did  He  not  give  it 
princely  priority  when  He  asked,  ^'Know  ye  not 
this  Parable?  And  how  shall  ye  know  all  the 
Parables?" 

And  so,  too,  with  that  ^'corn  of  wheat"  Miracle 
of  The  Resurrection.  Leading  the  long  line  of 
Christ's  Miracles  is  this  keystone  certitude,  and 
if  we  know  not  this  Miracle  how  shall  we  know 
all  the  Miracles? 


m 

A  RESURRECTION   REVERIE 

John  XX.  1-19 

It  is  ^^tJie  first  day  of  the  week/'  note  well;  and 
the  Soul  finds  in  this  word  first  something  that 
it  desires  with  great  desire.  Weeks  and  days 
of  the  week  it  knoweth  not ;  yet  doth  it  seize  upon 
this  word  ** first"  as  containing  worlds  of  import. 
For  this  first  has  no  last,  and  this  beginning  no 
end.  Here  is  a  dawn  that  will  never  see  a  sun- 
set; and  God's  first  day  of  John  xx.  is  precisely 
as  His  first  day  of  Genesis  i.  One  day,  one  func- 
tion, was  His  law  of  Creation.  **Let  there  be 
light"  was  the  lone  command  of  Earth's  first 
day.  **And  there  was  light"  is  the  long,  lone 
blessedness  of  Resurrection's  Eternal  day. 

*^ Cometh  Mary  Magdalene  early,  when  it  was 
yet  dark/'  She  was  early,  yes,  but  God  was 
earlier.  To  the  Soul's  early  there  is  ever  God's 
earlier.  In  the  days  of  His  flesh  He  was  ever  ris- 
ing early  and  protesting,  saying,  *^Obey  My 
voice";   and  now   He  who   had  risen  early  to 

101 


102         LOED'S  SUPPER  REVERIES 

preach,  riseth  early  to  save.  Note,  that  this 
**when  it  was  yet  dark"  is  the  Morning-Star  hour. 
When  He  rose  so  shall  we — *^  while  it  is  yet 
dark."  No  forty  days  will  elapse  between  onr 
rising  and  our  ascending.  To  rise  will  be  to 
ascend. 

^'And  seeth  the  stone  taken  away  from  the 
sepulchre/'  In  the  might  of  Imperial  Rome  the 
world  as  a  unit,  and  the  power  of  that  world,  was 
headed  up  in  Caesar.  There  was  no  King  but 
CsBsar,  and  no  power  like  Caesar 's  power.  When, 
therefore,  Rome  struck  Christ's  death-blow,  all 
the  world's  strength  backed  that  blow.  And  as 
the  death,  so,  too,  Christ's  burial.  As  surely  as 
the  Empire  had  killed  Him,  so  surely  did  it  mean 
to  patrol  the  tomb.  King  Caesar  would  await 
King  Corruption  and  then  each  would  go  his  re- 
spective way.  This  stone,  then,  ** great  stone" 
though  it  was,  was  not  merely  a  woman's  diffi- 
culty. It  was  an  Imperial  fact.  ^'Who  shall  roll 
it  awayf  said  they.  Yet  the  real  difficulty  was 
not  a  mere  stone,  however  large,  but  Death 's  real 
gates  of  brass  and  bars  of  iron.  They  locked 
Christ  in,  and  not  mere  stone.  Rome's  iron  nails 
and  soldier's  spear  had  bolted  the  gates  of  brass; 
be  there  big  stone  at  the  door,  or  no  stone  at  all. 


A  RESUEEECTION  REVERIE        103 

And  so  this  while-it-was-yet-dark  vision  of  the 
stone  rolled  away  tells  its  own  tale  and  another 
tale  also.  The  lesser  is  contained  in  the  greater. 
**The  Breaker''  is  Micah's  name  for  Him,  and 
here  the  Lord  earns  it  all.  He  hath  broken  the 
gates  of  brass  in  Resurrection  and  cut  the  bars 
of  iron  in  sunder ! 

^^Then  she  runneth  ,  .  ,  So  they  (Peter  and 
John)  ran  together/'  How  suggestive  an  inau- 
guration of  the  Resurrection!  The  Saints  have 
incentive;  they  run.  God  has  outrun  them;  yet 
would  they  run.  And  even  so  it  ever  was  with 
the  Church.  The  memory  of  the  empty  tomb  ever 
vivifies  His  own.  This  made  Gospelling  so  gladly 
easy  in  the  years  33-66  a.  d.  This  constituted  the 
*^ Offence  of  the  Cross'';  for  there  the  world's 
power  spent  itself;  and  the  Gospel  of  the  opened 
Tomb  heaped  humiliation  on  that  vaunted  power. 
Where  God  struck  the  world  its  death-blow,  so 
even  there  the  Church  ever  does  so.  Ah,  empty 
tomb,  may  we  run  because  of  thee ! 

^^She  runneth  to  Simon  Peter  and  the  other 
disciple,  and  they  ran  together  J*  Yes,  running 
indeed,  but  not  to  outsiders.  That  will  be,  and 
soon  enough.  The  Resurrection,  first  of  all, 
causes  Christ's  own  to  ^*run  together";  to  run 


104         LOED'S  SUPPER  EEVERIES 

to  each  other's  hearts  for  commniiioii  and  help. 
See  that  lovely  miniature  of  what  all  this  being 
** together' '  may  involve.  **As  they  ran  together 
the  other  disciple  did  outrun  Peter."  How  sim- 
ply put  and  yet  how  unerringly.  But  not  he  who 
is  first  exercises  his  rights  as  such.  The  first 
at  the  tomb  is  the  second  to  enter  it.  He 
who  is  forward  in  running  is  backward  in  enter- 
ing. And  he  is  that  disciple  whom  Jesus  fondly 
loved;  he,  who  would  rather  be  second  in  some 
things  and  first  in  one  thing.  This  one  thing  all 
the  Church  owns  to  be  his  fond  loving.  He  who 
fondly  loved  was  fondly  loved.  He  loved  Him 
because  He  first  loved  us.  Peter  dared  and  John 
loved;  yet  do  we  read  that  **they  went  away  to 
their  own  home/'  dear  brethren  both  of  a  dear 
Lord. 

In  the  running  of  fellowship  there  will  always 
be  outstripping.  But  the  kindly  dignity  of 
outrunning  consists  in  its  resolve  not  to  be  first 
in  everything.  It  leaves  something  for  some- 
body   else — '^that    all   might   have    a    little." 

''Simon  Peter  .  .  .  went  in;  then  went  in  also 
that  other  disciple;  and  he  saw  and  believed.'' 
It  was  what  they  did  not  see  that  agreed  so  di- 
vinely  with   what    they    saw.     This    constitutes 


A  KESUERECTION  REVERIE        105 

believing.  ^*We  see  not  yet  .  .  .  but  we  see;'' 
even  tbns  doth  God  make  Faith.  ''We  see  Him 
not,"  said  Peter;  yet  do  we  see  His  stately  go- 
ings, and  seeing  we  believe.  The  believing,  it 
must  be  most  carefully  noted,  is  all  put  down  to 
John's  credit.  They  entered,  ''but  he  believed." 
Peter's  thoughts  are  read  for  us  by  Luke  when 
he  says  that  having  beheld  the  linen  clothes,  Peter 
departed,  "wondering  in  himself  at  that  which 
was  come  to  pass."  Ah,  how  solemn!  We  can 
have  been  first  in  and  last  to  believe.  "The  first 
shall  be  last."  Love's  eye  alone  can  keenly  de- 
tect. Love  is  not  blind,  though  a  proverb  says  it. 
Love  only  can  see  rightly.  The  Gospel,  in  fact, 
hurries  on  to  tell  us  that  this  believing  was  not 
the  belief  of  faith— faith  in  God's  word.  Saith 
the  record:  "He  saw  and  believed,  for  as  yet 
they  knew  not  the  Scripture."  This  is  the  be- 
lief of  love,  not  the  belief  of  faith.  God's  hints 
lead  up  to  God's  words.  He  who  refuses  the 
■hint  will  get  the  word;  but  blessed  is  he  who 
taketh  God's  hints.    Love  ever  does. 

^^But  Mary  stood  without  weeping."  Ah,  now 
we  climb  the  heights!  Not  he  who  runneth,  and 
not  he  who  entereth,  but  she  who  weepeth  is 
crowned.     They  are  not  going  to  get  her  reward; 


106         LORD'S  SUPPEE  REVERIES 

no  man  may  take  her  crown!  She  gets  Himself 
— she  who  had  been  out  betimes  seeking  Him  while 
it  was  yet  dark.  True,  she  never  dreamed  of 
this,  nor  would  we.  We  wonder  why  they  did 
not  remember  what  He  had  told  them.  Ah,  that 
shows  up  not  their  unbelief  but  our  own!  They, 
even  now,  are  under  the  black  cloud  of  Calvary; 
their  souls  are  shrouded  in  the  horror  of  great 
darkness.  No  empty  tomb  for  them  will  mean 
the  long  aching  days  of  sorrow  dragging  out 
ahead;  the  night  getting  bleaker  and  darker. 
And  so  our  wondering  at  all  this  only  shows  how 
little  a  Calvary  ours  has  been — ^how  little  a  loss 
we  realise  theirs  had  been.  Looking  across  a 
glorious  Resurrection  vista  of  nearly  two  thou- 
sand years — in  which  Christ  has  been  Head  over 
all  things  to  the  Church — ^how  easy  to  criticise  the 
orphans  who  had  neither  Christ  nor  Paraclete! 
Mary,  then,  was  first,  and  first  she  shall  be,  said 
her  risen  Lord.  She  who  had  experienced  His 
saving  grace  is  honoured  by  first  welcoming  Him 
back  again.  All  has  been  tangled,  and  her  only 
relief  is  that  of  weeping.  She,  like  the  other 
woman,  would  have  wet  His  feet  with  those  same 
tears ;  but  now  there  are  no  feet  to  weep  over,  and 
she  weeps  the  tears  of  despair.    And  the  tears 


A  EESURRECTION  REVERIE        107 

blind — blind  so  really  that  when  He  speaks  to 
iher  she  knows  Him  not.  Supposes  Him  to  be 
the  gardener,  forsooth — oh,  blinding  tears!  For 
there  are  tears  that  blind  metaphorically,  even 
as  there  are  tears  that  clear  the  soul's  vision. 
She,  too,  had  stooped  in  to  see  what  the  others 
saw ;  but  her  tears  hindered  her  seeing  what  John 
saw.  God,  then,  must  do  His  first  godlike  act 
in  Resurrection;  do  what  He  ever  does  to  His 
weeping  Marys.  He  wipes  away  all  their  tears; 
and  that,  too,  with  the  old  magic  word  of  a  hu- 
man name;  her  name — ^^Mary!"  And  she — oh, 
in  a  flash  all  is  explained;  and  to  show  how  well 
she  has  learned  her  lesson  she  utters  the  lone 
word  **Rabboni!''  that  is  to  say  (if  an  interjec- 
tion has  any  value  at  all),  '*0h,  what  a  Teacher!'' 
For  the  path  has  been  winding  and  the  discipline 
severe,  but  all  has  been  climaxed,  even  as  our 
lesson  will  be,  with  that  one  ascriptive  word, 
'^Rabboni!"    **Who  teacheth  like  Thee!" 

*^Then  the  same  day  at  evening,  when  the  doors 
were  shut  ,  .  .  came  Jesus  and  stood  in  the 
midst.''  The  wonderful  morning  leads  on  to  a 
wonderful  evening.  They  have  shut  out  the  Jews, 
not  the  Lord.  He  who  could  not  be  shut  in  by 
the  Romans  cannot  be  shut  out  by  His  own. 


108         LORD'S  SUPPEE  REVERIES 

Nay,  but  His  own  promise  do  they  claim — **  Where 
two  or  three  are  gathered  together. "  Look, 
too,  how  they  have  left  Him  His  rightful  place 
*'in  the  midst'';  and  look,  too,  how  He  claims  it! 
**  Jesus  stood  in  the  midst."  The  promise  made 
is  the  promise  kept. 


IV 

"BE  STILL  AND  KNOW" 


The  Lord  separates  the  sin  that  He  hates  from 
the  soul  that  He  loves. 

*  *  * 

We  live  by  dying  to  ourselves.    We  die  hy 
living  to  ourselves. 


IV 

"be  still  and  know" 

A  Meditation  on  Psalm  xlvi 

Jehovah  is  indeed  our  God,  our  Refuge  and  our 
Strength.  Often,  too,  have  we  known  Him  as  a 
very  present  Help.  Yet  how  far,  far  oftener  it 
has  to  candidly  come  to  this:  '^Be  still,  and 
know  that  I, am  God!''  His  attributes  are  sound- 
less and  boundless,  but  back,  ever  back  must  we 
come  to  Himself.  This  is  life  eternal,  this  the 
Alpha  and  Omega  in  one — to  know  God. 
Whether  it  be  the  witness  of  such  an  one  as  Paul 
the  aged,  or  Augustine,  or  Richard  Baxter,  the 
word  is  ever  the  same — God,  God,  GOD,  and  that 
I  might  know  Him!  But  watch  withal  one  tre- 
mendous thing.  The  atmosphere  of  such  a 
knowledge  is  that  war  ever  and  inexorably  pre- 
cedes peace.  *^Come,  behold  the  works  of  Je- 
hovah, what  desolations  He  hath  made'' — in 
making  peace!  There  is  no  birth  without  a 
pang.  There  is  no  high  hill  but  beside  a  deep 
valley. 

m 


112         LOED'S  SUPPER  REVERIES 

I,  a  little  bob-about  of  humanity,  must  be  still 
to  know  Him.  Therefore  He  must  make  me  still 
with  a  solemn  stillness.  He  wars  with  me  for 
my  peace.  ''From  whence  come  wars,"  asks  the 
Apostle,  ''if  not  from  this  old,  old  war — the  soul 
vEKsus  God?  Come  therefore,  behold  the  desola- 
tions He  hath  made!  Behold  the  trusty  treas- 
ures of  His  deep  designs  and  see  how  in  loyal  love 
God  roareth  as  a  lion  in  the  path  of  His  rebel 
child."  He  had  only  this  one  way  with  THE 
SON  when  He  undertook  our  case;  and  He  hath 
no  other  way  with  the  sons.  God  must  desolate 
me  for  my  peace.  He  must  cross  His  church  be- 
fore He  can  crown  it.  Come,  then,  behold  not 
only  life's  desolations,  but  also  life's  consola- 
tions. After  the  desolation  comes  the  consola- 
tion. Look,  too,  at  the  specific  details  in  our 
Psalm  of  this  peace-after-war  postulate  and  how 
it  eventuates. 

Firstly,  He,  the  Holy  Warrior  God,  breaketh 
my  rebel  bow.  Yes,  the  old  bow  that  had  hurled 
many  a  dart  at  Him,  our  God.  Now  all  is  far 
otherwise.  His  arrows  are  sharp  in  the  heart  of 
the  King's  enemies.  To  emancipate.  He  must 
needs  subjugate. 

Secondly,  in  bringing  about  the  rebel  soul's 


*^BE  STILL  AND  KNOW"  113 

peace  He  cutteth  the  spear  in  sunder.  Yes,  my 
old  spear  wherewith  I  pierced  His  wounded  side, 
cruel  spear  that  wounded  Him — ^but  unto  my  heal- 
ing !  .  Best  stroke  of  my  God  that  snappeth  it  in 
twain.  Now  it  will  pierce  no  longer.  That 
spear,  though,  is  not  wholly  abandoned ;  it  is  now 
beaten  into  a  pruning  Jiooh,  He  only  'breaks  the 
spear  to  make  it  a  pruning  hook — emblem  of 
peace,  yea,  peace  through  direst,  reddest  war. 
The  old  spear  wherewith  I  stabbed  my  God  I 
now  use  to  prune  myself.  Anon,  too,  it  will  prune 
others,  for  what  He  tells  me  in  darkness,  that 
must  I  speak  in  the  light. 

Thus,  by  the  inexorable  law  of  Cross-and- 
Crown  sequence  we  emerge  upon  these  sweetest 
of  words,  ^*BE  STILL."  I  would  not  be  still,  so 
He  had  to  make  me  still.  Come,  behold  the 
desolations  He  hath  made,  all  to  this  intent. 
Here,  a  sick  bed,  there  a  hidden  heart  trial;  and 
everywhere,  a  cross  for  all  who  will  ever  wear  a 
crown. 

^ '  The  evening  and  morning  were  the  first  day.  * ' 
And  we  will  never,  never  have  a  divine  day  un- 
less it  be  after  the  primal  pattern  of  God's  first 
model  one.  The  Devil's  day  is  the  opposite  of 
God's.    The  Satanic  formula  runs,  ^'the  morning 


114         LOED'S  SUPPER  REVERIES 

and  the  evening  make  the  diabolic  day."  Yes, 
first  the  morning  then  the  evening  that  never  sees 
a  snnrise.  With  God  our  God  the  evening  and 
morning  make  a  divine  day ! 

**And  know."  Ah!  they  know  best  who  have 
battled  with  God  and  been  defeated.  '*!  will  be 
exalted"  is  God's  cry.  So  must  man  be  laid 
low;  but  not  so  low  as  ever  the  Son  of  Man  lay. 
And  He  who  went  lowest  must  be  Highest.  ^^I 
will  be  exalted."  So,  too,  shall  we  find  like  ex- 
altation in  like  humiliation.  The  same  word  is 
used  for  being  ^ lifted  up"  on  a  cross  and  on  a 
throne  and  the  same  glorious  Lord  was  lifted  up 
on  both. 

Thus  we  work  out  at  the  xlvi  Psalm's  lovely 
end,  which  is  really  its  beginning  too.  There  is  a 
secret  key  and  that  key  lies  in  the  mention  of 
Jacob's  name.  For  every  mention  of  the  phrase 
*^God  of  Jacob"  really  means  ^^God  of  (EVEN!) 
Jacob!  Yes,  the  God  of  even  such  a  wriggling 
cheat  as  he:  *^The  God  of  all  Grace"  and  there- 
fore 'Hhe  God  of  (even)  Jacob." 

''The  Lord  of  Hosts  is  with  us,  THE  GOD  OF 
JACOB  is  our  refuge,"  our  ''high  tower." 
There  is  exaltation  for  Jacob  and  all  his  ilk! 


^*BE  STILL  AND  KNOW  115 

The  Lord  of  hosts  is  with  us  now,  as  surely  as 
He  was  against  us  with  all  His  hosts  to  break  and 
subjugate  us  for  our  peace.  Hence  this  abrupt 
juxtaposition  of  ^*Lord  of  hosts*'  and  **God  of 
Jacob.*' 

Yes,  Jacob's  name  is  the  determining  factor 
here  in  the  exegesis  of  this  bitter-sweet  Psalm. 
For  watch.  Storm  and  calm,  war  and  peace,  is 
Jacob's  soul's  history,  as  well  as  a  world's.  A 
soul  is  a  world,  and  as  is  the  world,  so  is  the  soul, 
to  wit,  Jacob's.  As  many  as  the  sons  of  Adam, 
so  many  the  Jacobs.  Watch  this  out  with  Jacob 's 
name  and  history  as  a  key. 

Ah !  God  had  indeed  to  desolate  this  Jacob  ere 
he  could  consolate  him.  Come,  behold  the  works 
of  the  Lord  in  this  Jacob.  Come,  behold  him 
broken,  indeed,  at  last  by  life's  Jabbok;  lamed 
for  life,  but,  oh,  so  peaceful  now!  Broken  at 
last  the  old  cunning  Jacob  bow,  cut  asunder  the 
unerring  spear  of  his  youth!  And  as  by  that 
brook  Jabbok  he  battled  along,  God  did  say  to 
him  in  love  as  a  nurse  to  a  weary  child,  ^^Be  still 
and  know  that  I  am  God. ' ' 

Now  it  is  all  over,  and  after  blackest  night 
breaketh  morning  clear  and  fair  at  last.    A  holy 


116         LOED'S  SUPPER  REVERIES 

war,  indeed,  that  would  thus  subjugate  our  rebel 
soul  unto  Thee,  our  God ! 

*'Gird  Thy  sword  upon   Thy  thigh,   0  Most 
Mighty,  and  in  Thy  majesty  ride  prosperously!'' 


V 
"PEIVATELY" 


In  a  mountain  the  law  was  propounded  to 
Moses;  in  a  mountain  the  law  was  expounded  by 

Jesus. 

*  *  « 

The  former  to  a  man  of  God,  the  latter  hy  the 
Son  of  God,  The  one  to  a  Prophet  of  the  Lord, 
the  other  by  the  Lord  of  the  Prophets, 


V 

*^ privately":  a  one  word  bible  study 

Mark  vL  32;  Matt,  xxiv,  3 

Glancing  at  the  New  Testament  we  see  this  ad- 
verb in  close  and  ahnost  sole  association  with 
two  significant  nouns — *  ^  mountain ' '  and  *  *  desert. ' ' 
There,  on  *Hhe  high  mountain  apart,''  or  in  ^^the 
desert  place,"  He  appoints  the  trysting-place 
with  the  saints.  Surely  here  is  a  holy  hint  that 
God  embraces  the  extremes  of  life.  This  double 
trysting-place  of  mountain  and  desert  is  His  own 
royal  rebuke  to  the  old  lie,  that  *'The  Lord  is  God 
of  the  hills  but  He  is  not  God  of  the  valleys." 

I 
Watch  Mark's  first  use  of  the  word.  The  sent- 
ones  have  come  back  to  the  Sender.  Where  the 
words  of  the  King  had  gone  there  had  been  power, 
and  they  who  had  seen  much  of  man  must  now 
see  much  of  the  Master.  So  to  the  desert  they 
must  go — to  Christ's  retreat  from  the  strife  of 
tongues.     That  place  of  His  Temptation  is  to  be 

119 


120         LOED'S  SUPPER  REVERIES 

the  place  of  their  rest ;  where  the  Christ  was  with 
the  wild  beasts,  even  there  He  gathers  the  lambs 
of  His  flock  for  rest  (Heb.  iv.  9). 

^^God  hath  His  deserts  broad  and  "brown — 
A  solitude — a  sea  of  sand 
Where  He  doth  let  heaven's  curtain  down, 
Unknit  by  His  Almighty  hand.'' 

To  the  desert,  then,  by  ship  they  go;  but  as 
though  to  mock  the  idea  of  hermitic  solitude,  the 
crowd  take  the  short  cut  by  land,  and  lo,  the 
desert  is  no  longer  desert ! 

What  then?  What,  indeed,  if  not  a  feast,  a 
table  in  the  wilderness  *?  He  who  was  forty  days 
and  nights  in  the  wilderness  without  bread,  will 
not  let  them  go  hungry  an  hour.  For  this  invi- 
tation to  come  apart  shows  that  Christ  had  re- 
solved to  feast  them  bountifully  in  the  desert. 
They,  who  had  no  ** leisure  so  much  as  to  eat,'' 
must  come  apart  to  rest,  and  the  resting  consists 
in  the  feasting  and  the  giving  others  to  feast. 
Here,  then,  the  Master  teaches  them  the  double 
lesson,  that  while  to  be  apart  privately  is  the 
soul's  deepest  need,  it  is  no  easy  thing  in  this 
desert  of  life  to  get  apart  with  Him. 

Moral:  How  many  a  short  cut  the  world 
knows,  by  which  to  invade  our  calm  of  soul ! 


^TEIVATELY'*  121 

II 
But  the  Teacher  must  finish  the  lesson.  He  is 
the  perfect  Teacher,  because  He  perfectly  lives 
His  own  homily.  Not  even  the  apostles  may 
break  into  His  privacy.  Disbanding  the  ranks 
of  hundreds  and  ranks  of  fifties,  He  sends  them 
away  back  again  to  the  bustle  of  their  towns,  and 
even  His  own  He  constrains  to  depart  in  the  ship 
to  the  other  side.  For  He  who  so  suffered 
this  interruption  of  the  desert-rest  must  needs 
show  them  how  much  to  be  prized  above  all  life's 
prizes  is  aloneness  with  God.  There,  jutting  up 
into  the  blue  sky  is  God 's  mountain,  and  what  the 
desert  denied  Him  of  solitude  the  mountain  af- 
forded *  ^  He  went  up  into  a  mountain  privately  to 
pray.''  Here,  then,  He  teaches  where  this  word 
*^ privately"  first  leads  us.  Not  to  the  united 
prayer  of  saints,  but  to  life's  holiest  of  all-lone 
prayer  on  the  lone  mountain. 

'^God  hath  His  mountains  bleak  and  hare, 
Where  He  doth  hid  us  rest  awhile; 
Crags  where  we  hreathe  a  purer  air, 
Lone  peaks  that  catch  the  day's  first  smile." 

Moral:  By  every  legitimate  human  contriv- 
ance we  have  to  **set  bounds  about"  this  holy 
mount  of  ours,  that  the  people  draw  not  nigh. 


122         LOED'S  SUPPER  REVERIES 

m 

The  next  ** privately"  is  still  the  mountain; 
yea,  a  high  mountain,  and  Christ  on  it  with  only 
three,  and  not  twelve,  of  His  own.  He  does  not 
go  where  they  may  not  come,  and  He  would  thus 
lead  them  into  His  own  way  of  living  life.  They 
must  know  Him  on  the  mountain  as  they  could 
never  know  Him  in  the  desert.  '*He  bringeth 
them  up  into  a  high  mountain"  privately,  and 
was  transfigured  before,  alas,  not  them  all,  only 
three,  and  so  suggestively  three  too!  Here  is 
divine  irony  indeed.  For  in  all  ages,  not  even  in 
the  ratio  of  three  in  twelve,  has  Christ  been  a 
transfigured  Christ  to  His  own. 

Moral:  How  few  Robert  McCheynes  and 
George  Miillers  there  are! 

IV 

Pursuing  the  track  of  this  adverb,  we  see  unity 
of  design,  and  find  ourselves  among  the  same 
apostles  who  come  ^^ privately"  to  their  Lord 
with  the  powerless  query:  '*Why  could  we  not 
east  him  out?"  ''We"  is  emphatic,  for  who  are 
these,  if  not  those  who  come  back  rejoicing  that 
even  the  devils  were  subject  to  them?  ''We,  oh, 
we!    Where  is  our  old-time  power?"    What  a 


^^PEIVATELY"  123 

private  affair  this  is!  How  often  we  publicly 
lament  our  impotence  when  the  remedy  is  all  in 
our  private  life.  The  question  they  ask  in  secret 
is,  however,  answered  by  Christ  on  the  house- 
tops for  the  Church  in  all  ages  to  hear:  ** Be- 
cause of  your  unbelief."  Ah,  no  wonder  the 
power  is  lost!  Power  means  publicity  as  to  its 
exercise,  and  as  night  wars  with  day,  so  pub- 
licity wars  with  privacy. 

Moral:    How  common  the  swing  of  the  pen- 
dulum from  power  to  poverty! 

v 
And,  granted  the  power  bestowed,  what  so 
necessary  as  the  last  use  of  our  adverb?  They 
are  about  to  be  left  on  this  earth  the  chosen  cus- 
todians of  Christ's  truth.  From  their  lips  and 
pens  will  come  anon  the  divine  **form  of  sound 
words, ' '  and  they,  in  turn,  will  transmit  the  same 
as  a  divine  unit  to  faithful  men  who  will  be  able 
also  to  teach  others.  How  necessary  then  for 
them,  as  for  all  of  us,  to  spurn  human  creeds, 
and  approach  Christ  privately  on  the  matter  of 
His  own  teaching.  **The  disciples  came  unto 
Him  privately,  saying,  Tell  us  when  these  things 
shall     be.''    Not     to     particularise     prophecy 


124         LORD'S  SUPPER  REVERIES 

(tliougli  well  we  migM),  how  little,  indeed,  is 
Christ  permitted  to  preach  His  own  truth  pri- 
vately to  His  own !  Nay,  He  is  not  spicy  enough 
for  itching  ears,  and  the  puhlic  ministry  of  the 
Word  often  supersedes  such  private  divine  tui- 
tion as  He  loves  to  give.  Yet  as  now,  so  in  all 
ages,  the  greatest  need  is  to  be  in  private  au- 
dience of  our  God,  that  the  good  "Word  of  promise 
may  be  fulfilled  in  us:  *^They  shall  be  taught  of 
God." 

It  was  only  Paul  for  the  desert  and  the  desert 
for  Paul  that  saved  the  faith  from  black  havoc 
while  yet  in  its  infancy.  There  in  the  desert,  far 
from  the  madding  crowd,  not  only  of  sinners  but 
of  saints,  God  needs  Paul  as  Paul  needs  God. 
Yes,  and  the  saints  of  the  madding  crowd  need 
Paul  too.  Even  in  this  holy  matter  of  getting 
alone  with  God,  he  must  supply  their  lack  of  serv- 
ice. Paul  was  allured  into  Arabia  with  the 
promise:  **They  shall  be  all  taught  of  God.'* 
Did  he  regret  going?  See  him  emerging  from  it 
all  with  a  shining  face,  and  listen  to  his  shout: 
' '  Who  teacheth  like  Thee ! ' ' 

Moral:  It  is  written:  **They  shall  be  all 
taught  of  God.'' 


VI 

CEETITUDE 


''  Some  men  "believe  their  doubts  and  doubt 

their  beliefs." 

m  *  ne 

Said  Christ  to  Thomas:    Ye  know. 
Said  Thomas  to  Christ:    We  know  not. 


VI 

CERTITUDE 

John  xiv.  4 

*^ Whither  I  go  ye  know,  and  the  way  ye  know." 
Listen  to  the  certainty  of  it  all  from  Him  who 
knows  the  hmnan  heart  better  than  it  knows  itself. 
But  the  word  of  Faith  rings  back  as  nsnal  only 
the  hollow,  sepulchral  note  of  Unbelief.  And  God 
would  thus  unmask  unbelief  before  our  eyes.  So 
in  sharp  sorry  juxtaposition  He  puts  the  word  of 
Faith  over  against  the  word  of  Unbelief — 

*  *  Whither  I  go  *^  We  know  not 

y^  hnow,^'  whither." 

Again — 

**The  way  ye  ''How  can  we  know 
know,"  the  way?" 

Ah!  Christ  knows  them  better  than  they  know 
themselves.  Thomas  really  knows  a  thing  that 
Thomas  thinks  he  does  not  know.  For  Thomas 
has  a  ''My  Lord"  and  a  ''My  God"  who  knows 
Thomas  better  than  Thomas  knows  himself. 

127 


128         LOED'S  SUPPER  REVERIES 

I 

Note  the  real  root-reason  of  it  all.  Their 
'' whither' '  was  as  usual  only  an  it.  It,  that 
is,  heaven — a  locality;  and  it — the  hard,  theo- 
retical way  thither.  And,  of  course,  sought  by 
the  search  of  sense,  neither  it,  the  Goal,  nor  it, 
the  Way  thereto,  was  found.  He  is  found  of  them 
that  seek  Him  not;  and  the  remedy,  which  is  an 
old  one,  was  immediately  applied. 

The  Father  is  the  blessed  *^ Whither"  of  our 
soul's  pilgrimage,  and  the  **Way''  is  Christ  the 
Son — a  new  and  living  Way.  Yes,  **I  am  the 
Way, ' '  not  to  heaven,  the  locality,  but  to  the  Per- 
son, the  Father.    For  what  saith  St.  John? 

Right  down  the  long  fourteenth  chapter  of  John, 
and  on  and  on  through  the  wondrous  fifteenth,  the 
longer  sixteenth  and  hallowed  seventeenth  chap- 
ters, it  is  not  Heaven  this  or  Heaven  that  but  the 
Son  going  to  the  Father.  Yes,  and  the  Son  lead- 
ing many  sons. 

But  the  purpose  of  this,  which  we  may  call  the 
Thomas  interlude  of  the  chapter,  we  shall  alto- 
gether misunderstand  if  we  proceed  forthwith  to 
^'Poor  Thomas!"  him  without  seeing  all  that  is 
involved  as  to  the  latent  unbelief  of  the  heart. 

Here,  then,  is  a  man — a  typical  and  true  man, 


CERTITUDE  129 

frankly  standing  forth  as  the  spokesman  of  our 
fallen  race.  He  has  denied  the  Way,  and  bound 
up  with  that  denial  is  this  other — that  of  the 
Truth. 

Look  at  the  blunt  ^*We  know  not"  frowning 
over  against  the  gracious  **Ye  know.''  Thomas 
has  believed  his  doubts  and  as  a  result  has  doubted 
his  beliefs.  Christ  is  positive ;  so  Thomas  is  not. 
Aye,  and  Thomas,  plus  a  million  of  his  ilk,  can  be 
positive  when  Christ  is  not.  The  Gospel  is  a  reve- 
lation ^'from  faith  to  faith,"  i.e.  of  heights  and 
heights  of  faith.  Yes,  and  one  has  truly  said  it 
is  a  revelation  of  '  ^depths  and  depths  of  unbelief. " 

Yet  the  Christ,  who  cannot  lie,  says,  **I  have 
told  you,  Thomas — I,  whose  yea  has  been  ever 
yea,  and  whose  nay,  ever  nay — that  I  am  the  "Way 
and  the  Truth.  Moreover,  Thomas,  I  have  been 
speaking  of  leaving  you — of  going  to  the  Father, 
and  that  to  you  in  plain  Galilean  speech  is,  I  am 
going  to  die.  And  having  died,  yea,  though  I  shall 
rise  again,  thou,  Thomas  (7  see  it  coming!)  thou 
wilt  not  believe  it.  Yet,  Thomas,  I  am  ^the  Way ' ; 
I  am  *the  Truth';  yea,  verily,  I  am  *the  Life'  and 
death  cannot  hold  its  prey ! ' ' 

This  Thomas  interlude,  though  broken  into  by 
Philip's  query,  is  merely  adjourned  for  a  few 


130         LOED^S  SUPPEK  REVERIES 

days.  Wondrous  days  indeed,  for  therein  God 
has  ^*  brought  again  from  the  dead  our  Lord  Jesus, 
that  Great  Shepherd  of  the  sheep." 

And  now  forth  He  stands  who  was  dead  and  is 
alive  again — ^living  after  the  power  of  an  endless 
life.  And  in  chapter  xx.  Thomas  is  commanded 
to  make  an  end  of  the  matter,  yes^  that  old  matter 
begun  hy  himself  in  this  fourteenth  chapter.  Best 
doubter,  he  is  now  best  believer;  and  ^*My  Lord 
and  my  God ! ' '  ends  the  solemn  matter.  To  him, 
the  Way,  and  the  Truth,  and  the  Life,  are  a  peer- 
less Person,  whom  to  believe  is  bliss. 


And  now  for  our  side  of  this  subject.  Away,  He 
has  gone  into  the  glory — gone  to  the  Father — the 
Way  indeed,  and  the  Life  indeed. 

And  cheering  the  pilgrim's  path  as  he  travels 
through  the  night  is  the  central  fact — He  is  the 
Truth.  This  is  the  reason  why  the  names  Way 
and  Life  flank  the  very  vital  name  of  Truth.  Cen- 
turies are  going  to  pass,  and  still  He  is  going 
to  sit,  **from  henceforth  expecting,"  upon  the 
Throne. 

And  still  the  night  will  grow  blacker  as  souls 
journey  on  to  Him,  **Whom  having  not  seen  they 


CERTITUDE  131 

loyally  love.  The  very  blackness  of  the  night 
seems  to  feed  the  jflame  of  sedition  and  many  a 
time  we  out-Thomas  Thomas  with  our  *^We  know 
not."  But  God  knows  His  timid  Thomases  better 
than  they  know  themselves.  With  royal  reitera- 
tion and  through  life's  gathering  gloom  He,  our 
Lord,  sends  back  on  us  His  eager  and  earnest  ''Ye 
know'^  right  in  the  teeth  of  our  blundering-in-the- 
dark  ''We  know  not/'  And,  surely,  Thomas 
would  be  well  and  wisely  advised  to  believe  in  a 
cock-sure  Lord  rather  than  in  a  cock-sure  Thomas. 
Jeremiah  was  a  **heart"  man  hence  his  tears, 
yet  he  it  was  who  said,  *Hhe  heart  .  .  .  who  can 
know  it?"  Then  it  was  a  jealous  God  answered 
this  **who  can  know  it"  challenge  of  His  pro- 
foundly puzzled  Jeremiah.  '*!  the  Lord  search 
the  heart."  *^The  Lord  knoweth  the  heart." 
And  the  God  who  knows  me  better  than  I,  John 
Smith,  know  myself,  this  God  it  is  who  sweetly 
tells  me  that  I  really  know  the  very  thing  that  I 
timidly  and  Thomas-like  think  I  do  not  know. 

in 

And  this  God  is  our  God  for  ever  and  ever,  He 
will  be  our  Guide  even  *^over"  (see  Hebrew) 
death.    For  note  this.    He  loves  us  for  the  good 


132         LOED^S  SUPPEE  EEVEEIES 

that  is  in  us — and  because  He  put  it  there.  * ' That 
good  thing  committed  unto  thee  keep  .  .  .  !"  It 
is  not  merely  that  we  believe  in  Christ  but  that 
He  believes  in  us.  And  He  never  believes  in 
us  better  than  when  we  least  believe  in  our- 
selves. It  is  not  merely  that  we  hope  in  Christ 
but  that  Christ  is  in  us  the  Hope  of  Glory 
hoping  His  own  Hope  and  believing  His  own 
Belief.  We  do  not  hold  it,  the  truth — a  dogma. 
But  He,  The  Truth,  a  Person,  holds  us.  And  just 
as  mere  dogma  is  not  good  enough  for  us  so  is  it 
not  good  enough  for  Him.  He  must  have  more 
than  talk.    If  we  talk  the  talk  we  must  live  the  life. 

Let  me  conclude  thus. 

Paul  once  nearly  blundered  into  this  thing  but 
he  did  not.  The  God  who  keepeth  the  feet  of  His 
Saints  also  keeps  the  pen  of  His  Apostle  when 
writing  to  the  Galatians.  I  repeat  he  almost 
blundered  but  he  decidedly  did  not.  Writing 
them  an  Epistle  he  said,  *' After  that  ye  knew 
God — "  and  then  Paul  pulled  up  sharp.  *'If 
this  is  not  modified,"  mused  the  Apostle,  **then 
the  right  point  of  view  will  be  missed."  So  the 
Pauline  pen  runs  royally  on  and  without  deleting 
a  word  he  redeems  and  regulates  the  phrase. 
* ^  After  that  ye  knew  God  ob  bather  (I'll  put  it  the 


CEETITUDE  133 

proper  way!)  were  known  of  God."  *'I  do  not," 
says  Paul,  *  Hake  it  back,  but  I  almost  want  to.  It 
is  not  your  knowing  God  but  it  is  God's  knowing 
you. 


BOOK  III 

MISSION  STUDIES 

I 

"SO  THEY  TOOK  THE  MONET'' 


When  the  widow  gave  her  last  two  mites,  this 
is  what  she  thought.  Said  she,  ^'Whatsoever  I 
receive  is  a  token  of  God's  love  to  me.  There- 
fore I  part  with  it  contentedly  as  a  token  of  my 
love  to  Him!'' 


I 

*'S0  THEY   TOOK   THE   MONEY" 

Matt,  xxviii.  15 

Nay,  they  did  more.  *^They  took  the  money  and 
did  as  they  were  taught.''  Now  there  is  point 
in  these  words  undoubtedly ;  but  there  is  far  more 
point  in  their  context.  For  here,  at  the  end  of 
Matthew,  the  gospel  record  is  closing  and  the 
gospel  preaching  is  beginning.  Now  the  above 
words  occur,  not  merely  in  Matthew's  last  chap- 
ter, but  also  hard  before  Christ's  last  command. 
There  is  a  transition  here  far  too  abrupt  not  to  be 
intentional.  Here  is  Satan  propagating  the  lie, 
and  here,  too,  is  the  Christ  propagating  the  Truth. 
Here  are  Satan's  great  money  methods  of  propa- 
ganda unveiled  before  us ;  here,  too,  the  Christ's. 

Satan  seems  sure  of  one  thing,  that  money  will 
do  what  he  wants.  Had  he  not  specifically  hired 
Apostle  No.  12  for  a  stated  sum?  And  why  not 
a  batch  of  Caesar's  men? 

137 


138  MISSION  STUDIES 

I 

Let  lis  now  contrast  these  two  commissions,  for 
curiously  where  the  Church  has  only  seen  one 
commission,  there  are  in  reality  two.  A  glance 
shows  us  the  deep  subtlety  of  it  all.  Here  in 
sharp  juxtaposition  we  see  the  lie  and  also  the 
truth. 

Watch,  I  say,  these  rival  Missions  with  their 
rival  methods. 

The  Christ  ordains  that  they  must  do  all  things 
whatsoever  He  has  commanded  them. 

The  Liar  claims  a  like  obedience  for  they  '*did 
as  they  were  taught." 

The  Christ  proclaims  the  promise  that  He  will 
personally  back  all  his  servants,  saying,  **Lo  I 
(even  I,  emphatic)  am  with  you  alway.'' 

The  Liar  likewise  saith  to  his  devotees:  Do 
the  deed :  sow  the  sinful  seed  and  if  this  come  to 
the  Governor's  ears  lo!  we  will  stand  by  you 
alway. 

The  Christ  by  way  of  a  salary  giveth  them  not 
mere  money  (no  mention  of  it  even!)  but  He  gives 
them  Himself.    *  ^  I  'm  your  Salary ! ' ' 

The  Liar  lures  them  on  with  large  money  for  it 
is  a  large  lie.  Large?  Yes  I  but  Christ  went  far- 
ther and  gave  not  mere  money  but  Himself. 


*^S0  THEY  TOOK  THE  MONEY '^     139 

II 

Look  closely  now  at  this  resurrection-lie,  and 
see  if  it  is  not  the  head  and  front  of  all  Satan's 
offending.  For  the  Eesurrection  is  Heaven's 
ALL,  even  as  it  is  the  Church's  breath  of  life. 
Look,  too,  at  this  salaried  lie,  as  to  its  actual 
words.  Saith  Satan  in  effect :  **  Say  ye.  His  dis- 
ciples stole  Him  away;  .  .  .  and,  if  this  come  to 
the  governor's  ears,  I  will  stand  by  you,  I  will 
not  desert  you!"  *^So  they  took  the  money  and 
did  as  they  were  taught." 

Is  there  nothing  suggestive,  I  ask,  in  the  fact 
that  Christ  commissions  His  church  to  go  thou- 
sands of  miles  and  yet  never  hints  about  the 
needed  money  en  routed  Passage  money  for  thou- 
sands of  saints  going  thousands  of  miles  is  easily 
involved  in  this  commission:  Go  ye  into  all  the 
world.  I  repeat  this  ^*ye"  means  many,  many 
men;  this  ^'all"  means  many,  many  miles.  Yes, 
and  this  **ye"  plus  this  **all"  means  money, 
many  millions  of  money !  Yet  He  never  even  men- 
tions mere  money  in  the  concise  context  where 
Satan  in  his  lie-commission  makes  money!  money! 
loom  so  large.  0 !  give  me  The  Christ  for  divine 
methods  in  His  divine  service. 

Then  does  He  ignore  the  whole  question  of 


140  MISSION  STUDIES 

money?  Nay!  there  is  no  question  at  all  about 
it  for  the  less  is  included  in  the  greater.  ^  ^  Go  ye, " 
saith  this  living  loving  Lord,  * '  and  lo !  I  am  with 
you  to  run  the  whole  concern  and  pay  all  the 
hills  J' 

Of  course,  the  salary  was  a  large  one.  *^They 
gave  large  money  unto  the  soldiers."  The 
Resurrection  was  Satan's  extremity;  hence  this 
large  money  for  a  large  work.  True,  there  are 
hundreds  the  broad  world  over  who  do  a  large 
enough  work  for  Satan  without  receiving  a  large 
wage.  Man's  extremity  is  the  hour  of  Satan's 
parsimony.  Satan's  bounty  ever  tells  of  his  own 
extremity. 

Take,  for  example,  the  daring  attack  upon  our 
Lord  in  the  wilderness.  There  Satan  reckoned 
upon  the  Son  of  Man's  extremity;  yes,  reckoned 
that  mere  creature  hunger  would  eventuate  in 
capitulation.  But  God  knoweth  no  extremity, 
nor  God's  Man  either.  Yet  note  the  fact  and 
tremble.  Satan  tempted  even  the  Son  of  God 
with  a  crust  of  bread! 

The  large  money  was  for  a  large  work,  and 
see  how  well  they  worked.  Alas,  how  well  men 
labour  for  him  who  labours  not  for  them.  Saith 
Matthew,  **They  did  as  they  were  taught,  and 


*^S0  THEY  TOOK  THE  MONEY''     141 

this  saying  is  commonly  reported  .  .  ,  to  this 
day,"  Here  tlien  we  behold  Zeal  on  a  salary — 
prepaid,  too,  according  to  tlie  words  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  *'They  have  their  reward." 

in 

Look  now  in  conclusion  at  this  resurrection-lie 
and  see  how  unerringly  Christ  combats  same. 

Saith  the  Liar :     Say,  they  stole  Him  away. 

Saith  the  Truth:  Lo!  I  {even  I,  emphatic)  am 
with  you  to  give  this  lie  its  death-blow. 

Saith  the  Liar :    Say,  they  stole  Him  away. 

Saith  the  Truth:  This  will  shame  even  the 
Devil :  Me  ?  they  could  not  steal  Me  away,  for  lo ! 
I  am  with  you  in  person  to  nail  down  the  resurrec- 
tion-lie with  the  resurrection-truth  of  my  Eeal 
Presence  with  you. 

Ah!  heart  of  mine,  how  often  thou  forgettest 
that  the  resurrection  is  not  a  mere  event  in  history, 
but  a  person.  Not  a  creed  about  Christ  it  is  The 
Christ.  Nay,  not  mere  windy  word- wrangling  can 
settle  this  subject.  He  can  only  treat  this  lie  the 
way  many  a  good  man  has  to  meet  a  dark,  dirty 
lie  against  his  own  private  honour.  He  must 
(not  talk  it  down !),  he  must  live  it  down.  And  as 
Christ's  so  The  Christ.    He  is  with  us  in  peerless, 


142  MISSION  STUDIES 

powerful  person  to  live  down  the  Jewisli  lie  about 
His  resurrection. 

Shall  we  venture  now  to  deny  that  here,  in 
such  abrupt  contrast,  there  is  no  significance  in 
Christ's  absolutely  ignoring  the  word  money  in 
His  last  command!  In  Satan's  propaganda  it  is 
the  word  that  ever  bulks  so  largely.  But  for  that 
there  would  have  been  no  need  for  Matthew's 
pathetic  phrase,  **Then  the  eleven  disciples" — 
the  unity  of  the  twelve  broken  by  the  god  Mam- 
mon! Moreover,  the  mournful  declension  of  this 
Judas — seceding,  too,  on  such  a  poor  wage  as 
from  £3  to  £4 — surely  indicates  what  a  poor 
earthly  store  was  theirs  who  had  treasure  in 
Heaven.  ** Silver  and  gold  have  I  none,"  said 
Peter,  ^'but  such  as  I  have,  give  I  thee." 

''But  such  as  I  havef  Yes,  Peter  thou  hast 
the  living,  loyal  Lord  who  not  only  pays  your  way 
but  presences  the  way.  And  His  pay  is  His 
presence ! 

^'And  they  went  forth  and  preached  every- 
where, the  Lord  working  with  them." 


n 

"THE  LAW  OF  FAITH" 


//  faith  in  God  gives  us  our  Eternal  life  why 
should  not  faith  in  Him  give  us  our  morning 
meal? 

*  *  * 

We  boast  of  being  so  practical  a  people  that  we 
want  to  have  a  surer  thing  than  faith.  But  did 
not  Paul  say  that  the  promise  was  by  FAITH 
that  it  might  be  SUBEf 


n 


Bom.  ill.  27 

Writing,  as  Paul  does  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Eo- 
mans,  to  a  great  legal  nation,  how  appropriate  is 
his  frequent  mention  of  Law.  Among  those  Eo- 
mans  Law  was  held  in  such  high  honour  that  the 
echo  of  the  Eoman  Code  can  be  heard  even  in 
a  British  Court  of  Justice  to-day.  How  ap- 
propriate, then,  we  repeat,  that  Paul's  language 
should  be  framed  in  such  precise  diction  as 
would  be  understood  by  a  Eoman  lawyer.  Surely 
the  sublime  and  logical  sequence  of  PauPs  every 
*  therefore"  and  ^^  wherefore"  is  a  true  echo  of 
their  own  later  language  of  the  Forum.  Thus  we 
learn  that  the  Paul  of  Mars  Hill  in  Greece  can 
prove  himself  to  be  a  Eoman  to  the  Eomans,  even 
as  he  was  then  on  that  Athens  Hill  a  Greek  to  the 
Greeks.  As  surely  as  the  home  of  stem  law  was 
away  there  in  the  heart  of  Eome — law  that 
grasped  and  unified  the  Empire  with  an  iron 
hand — even  so  in  all  tlie  great  Epistle  to  the  Eo- 

145 


146  MISSION  STUDIES 

mans,  the  word  law  is  found  dominating  and 
dwarfing  all  other  issues.  The  more  than  sixty- 
references  in  Romans,  for  instance,  to  the  law  of 
Sinai  are  so  obvious  that  we  need  not  now  con- 
sider them  in  detail.  Such  mentions  of  Sinai 
law,  vital  though  they  be,  and  forming  as  they 
do  Paul's  basis  of  God's  gospel,  we  do  not  dwell 
upon.  It  is  with  another  and  almost  curious 
mention  of  law  that  we  are  now  concerned.  In 
this,  it  will  be  seen  that  Roman  Paul  is  still  cling- 
ing to  the  imagery  of  law,  the  very  use  of  the 
word  in  its  newness  and  power  adding  illumina- 
tion to  the  subject,  while  at  the  same  time  con- 
ciliating Roman  ears.  One  such  powerful  phrase 
is:     *^The  Law  of  Faith." 


Note,  then,  the  blessed  fact,  that  Paul  is  such  a 
Roman  to  the  Romans  that  he  preaches  faith  as  a 
law.  Faith,  so  definitely  in  contrast  with  law  all 
through  Paul's  Epistles,  is  yet  declared  to  be  a 
law.  '^By  what  Law!"  asks  the  Apostle,  and  we 
can  almost  see  the  genial  smile  of  his  answer, 
^^By  the  Law  of  Faith."  To  Paul,  what  a  wealth 
of  authority  lies  behind  his  proclamation,  as  the 
Christ's  ambassador,  of  the  law  of  faith.    Many 


^^THE  LAW  OF  FAITH"  147 

a  pro-consul  and  procurator  had  he  seen  flourish 
an  imperial  edict  in  the  teeth  of  a  lawless  mob, 
and  to  Paul,  in  this  solemn  concern  of  the  law  of 
faith,  was  not  God  commanding  all  men  every- 
where to  repent?  If  PauPs  theme  was  **the 
Kingdom  of  God''  (Acts  xxviii.  31),  then,  surely 
this  was  a  royal  edict.  Eeaching  the  metropolis 
as  he  ultimately  did,  the  last  glimpse  we  have  of 
him  in  Acts  is  as  **  preaching  the  kingdom  of  God, 
no  man  forbidding  him."  And  the  kingdom  of 
God,  to  Paul,  meant  the  sphere  in  which  God's 
Law  of  Faith  was  regnant.  Through  him  God 
was  commanding  all  men  everywhere  to  repent 
from  their  law-breaking,  much  more  insistently 
than  any  Eoman  official  could  claim  obedience  for 
his  Emperor. 

Faith,  as  a  law,  however,  had  a  fuller  import 
than  its  commandment  aspect.  To  the  Apostle 
this  law  necessarily  excluded  much,  while  it  in- 
cluded much.  As  an  edict,  the  same  Law  of  Faith 
that  embraced  all  men  everywhere,  just  as  sweep- 
ingly  rejected  all  man's  vain  boasting.  Boast- 
ing is  excluded,  not  by  whim,  but  by  law — *Hhe 
Law  of  Faith."  For  the  Law  of  Faith  is  the 
law  of  brokenness  of  spirit,  of  emptiness,  of  hu- 
mility.   And  where  is  boasting  here,  if  not  ex- 


148  MISSION  STUDIES 

eluded?  The  inflexible  demand  of  the  law  of 
emptiness  is  that  it  excludes  fulness,  even  as 
brokenness  and  humility  are  eternally  at  war 
with  pride.  So  inexorable  are  these  laws,  that 
they  operated  before  time  was,  and  drove  Satan 
out  of  heaven.  Boasting,  alias  Satan,  was  ex- 
cluded. 

Faith  is  a  rock,  is  certitude,  is  supremely  the 
sure  thing  in  life.  Faith  is  law,  not  mist,  not 
mere  talk,  not  dream.  It  is  the  only  sure  thing 
in  the  world.  This  is  God's  guarantee,  as  it  were, 
why  the  Bristol  Orphan  Homes  continue.  This, 
too,  is  the  reason  why  all  who  truly  tread  the 
path  of  faith  are  sure  of  unerring  supply.  God 
is  under  law  to  support  them,  and  the  watchwords 
of  such  a  law  are  ^^shalP'  and  ^^must."  The 
only  link  that  binds  us  to  the  eternity  of  God  and 
His  steadfast  throne  is  this  Law  of  Faith.  Every 
'' shall"  and  ^^must"  in  the  treasure  house  of 
God  is  the  portion  of  Faith.  There  is  nothing 
uncertain  in  the  Law  of  Faith.  The  future  is 
merely  uncertain  in  our  ignorance  of  it.  "With 
our  God  the  future  is,  and  thus  faith  is  under 
glorious  law,  and  never  can  '^draw  a  blank." 
Faith  is  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen. 


^^THE  LAW  OF  FAITH  ^'  149 

**His  methods  are  sublime, 
His  ways  supremely  kind; 
God  never  is  before  His  time, 
And  never  is  behind/* 

II 

So  definite  a  thing  is  this  Law  of  Faith  that  the 
Apostle  John  boldly  shows  it  to  be  universal  even 
among  shrewd  men  of  the  world.  He  declares 
that,  even  in  the  low  plane  of  human  affairs,  faith 
as  between  man  and  man  is  utterly  indispensable 
to  a  day's  life  in  the  world.  It  is  the  native  at- 
mosphere of  the  human  family  right  across  the 
globe.  It  is  the  cement  that  binds  the  social  fab- 
ric in  unity.  So  sure  is  the  Apostle  John  of 
this  that  he  boldly  argues  from  this  very  law  of 
mutual  human  faith  to  the  higher  Divine  faith. 
**If  we  receive  the  witness  of  men,  the  witness  of 
God  is  greater.''  Nor  does  John  end  here.  Such 
definite  leverage  does  the  Apostle  see  here  for  the 
Gospel  plea,  that  he  returns  to  it  again  under  an- 
other form;  ^^He  that  loveth  not  his  brother 
whom  he  hath  seen,  how  can  he  love  God  whom 
he  hath  not  seen  I"  Thus  it  is  that  God  turns  the 
world's  anti-faith  laugh  against  itself,  reminding 
shrewd  men  and  women  that  the  poorest  invest- 


150  MISSION  STUDIES 

ment  is  the  one  that  ignores  God  and  His  Law  of 
Faith.  For  they  who  have  not  faith,  yet  show 
the  work  of  that  Law  of  Faith  written  in  their 
hearts  in  the  very  fact  that  human  mutnal  faith 
is  the  fundamental  law  of  even  such  a  vital  theme 
as  commerce. 

Boasting  is  excluded  by  the  Law  of  Faith,  says 
Paul,  and  so  too  is  bankruptcy.  God  only  ex- 
cludes in  order  that  He  may  abound  in  including. 
He  excludes  the  sight  of  human  eyeballs,  only  to 
give  the  soul  the  piercing  falcon  gaze  of  faith. 
The  arm  of  flesh  is  disowned  only  to  make  bare 
**the  Arm  of  the  Lord.''  Truly  he  need  be  no 
weakling  of  a  missionary  who  is  fully  subject  to 
this  law.  Funds  will  flow  in  according  to  Divine 
law.  '* Lacked  ye  anything?"  once  asked  the 
God  of  this  law.  ** Nothing!"  was  the  answer  of 
His  own — the  answer  of  the  ages. 

I  like  to  think  of  a  hidden  subtle  suggestion 
there  seems  to  be  in  this  phrase,  '*Law  of  Faith," 
that,  after  all,  law  is  law,  whether  for  my  eternal 
life  or  my  daily  meal.  The  same  Law  of  Faith 
governs  both;  even  such  a  stately  law  as  that  of 
Divine  supply.  David  surely  felt  the  wide  grasp 
of  this  law  when  in  one  breath  he  praised  God  for 
binding  up  the  wounds  of  the  broken  in  heart  and 


^^THE  LAW  OF  FAITH''  151 

telling  the  number  of  the  stars!  (Ps.  cxlvii.  3,  4). 
A  word  of  cheer,  this,  surely,  to  all  who  are 
trimming  the  little  lamps  of  testimony  in  dark 
heathen  corners  of  the  earth.  The  God  who 
lights  a  myriad  of  burning  worlds  will  keep  the 
little  mission  lamp  alight  unto  His  praise.  So 
exact  and  sure  are  God's  ways  with  us  that  the 
final  sum  of  them  all  is  **the  length  and  the 
breadth  and  the  height  of  it  are  equal." 

Ill 

Finally,  what  shall  we  say  of  such  an  unwaver- 
ing Law  of  Faith,  if  not  that  here,  indeed,  we 
touch  the  bed-rock  of  Christianity.  The  cring- 
ing flesh  sees  only  irritating  indefiniteness  in 
Faith  as  a  business  basis  in  life's  varied  and  puz- 
zling affairs.  God's  most  splendid  certainty  that 
subdued  kingdoms  and  stopped  the  mouths  of 
lions  is  to  the  flesh  no  law  at  all !  But  the  saved 
soul  knows  far  otherwise.  Finding  Faith  a  glori- 
ous law  operating  unto  its  own  life  everlasting, 
surely  such  a  soul  sees,  in  a  flash,  the  Divine  law 
of  heaven's  lesser  being  contained  in  heaven's 
greater,  and  as  a  result  will  step  out  with 
alacrity  on  the  bare  promise  of  God  for  all. 

Surely,  just  here,  we  find  Paul 's  reason  why  his 


152  MISSION  STUDIES 

only  reference  to  Faith  as  a  Law  is  when  he 
declares  that  it  excludes  all  human  boasting. 
Man^s  spasmodic  and  halting  actions  are  here  con- 
fronted by  the  serene  certainties  of  faith.  Faith 
ever  pursues  its  own  calm  and  supreme  function 
in  the  universe  of  God,  spurning  all  man's  clever 
little  plans  and  by-laws  as  its  handmaids.  There 
is  not  a  child  of  God  but  sees  that  it  is  only  the 
naked  soul  stripped  of  pretence  that  claims  faith's 
blessing.  And  so,  too,  in  all  the  operations  of 
that  law,  whether  for  bread  of  soul  or  bread  of 
body.  As  we  received  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord, 
even  so  must  we  walk  in  Him.  He  is  Lord  of 
soul  and  body,  and  filleth  all  things.  Beginning 
in  the  Spirit,  how  impoverished  must  be  the  faith 
that  seeks  to  perfect  any  part  of  God's  work  in 
the  flesh.  Thus  it  is  that  Paul  has  no  other  argu- 
ment of  rebuke  to  those  Galatians  than  the  simple 
yet  solid  query  as  to  how  they  received  their 
eternal  life.  And  if  by  faith,  your  eternal  life, 
saith  Paul,  then,  0  Galatians,  why  not  live  your 
earthly  life  thereby?  The  eternal  life  came  to 
their  souls  by  faith,  and  the  earthly  life  of  testi- 
mony must  be  lived  by  the  same  faith.  Otherwise 
it  is  foolishness:  ^*Are  ye  so  foolish!"  Pre- 
cisely the  commiserating  word  many  a  worldly 


^*THE  LAW  OF  FAITH'*  153 

relative  throws  after  a  departing  kinsman  wlio 
plunges  into  heathenism  trusting  God  only  for 
supplies.  And  this,  too,  is  Paul's  precise  retort 
to  all  who  swerve  from  the  path  of  Faith:  **Are 
ye  so  foolish?" 

A  goodly  band  in  London  many  years  ago  was 
being  farewelled  to  other  lands.  Text  after  text 
was  given  to  us  with  the  godly  desire  to  make 
them  our  soul's  portion.  Finally  rose  the  beloved 
M'Vicker  with  Bible  open  at  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis:  *^ God  made  two  great  lights.  ...  He 
made  the  stars  also!" 

And  thus  were  we  sped  on  our  way  to  distant 
lands  with  the  glad  belief  that  ''He  who  spared 
not  His  own  son  .  .  .  how  shall  He  not  with  Him 
also,  freely  give  us  all  things'?"  ''Lacked  ye 
anything?"  And  they  said  "Nothing!"  Surely 
nothing  less  than  a  serene,  uwavering  Law  of 
Faith  operating  by  night  and  day  could  guarantee 
such  a  sure  supply. 


in 

"THE  CERTAINTIES  OF  FAITH" 


^^Tou  know  the  hopelessness  of  such  a  tasJc 
(as  African  Missiom)  till  you  find  a  St.  Paul  or 
a  St.  John,  Their  representatives  nowadays 
want  so  much  per  year  and  a  contract.' ' 

General  Gordon  to  Sir  Richard  Burton. 


ni 

"the  cektainties  of  faith" 

Rom,  iv.  16 

A  MISSIONARY  friend  not  long  ago  expostulated 
with  me,  as  a  married  man,  for  not  having  a 
salary.  Something  sure  was  his  idea.  On  that 
occasion  God  spoke  from  His  Word  to  both  of 
us  on  the  salary  subject.  What  settled  the  mat- 
ter as  to  Faith  being  the  only  definite  thing  God- 
ward  was  the  following  word, — *  *  The  promise  was 
by  Faith  that  it  might  be  sure."  There  we  have 
the  whole  subject.  The  only  sure  thing  is  Faith. 
The  thing  in  my  purse  or  in  my  hand  is  not  sure. 
An  old  platitude,  no  doubt,  is  this  creature-hum- 
bling, Christ-exalting  Gospel,  but  it  is  well  to 
sound  out  the  call,  *^Wake  brethren,  wake." 

We  are  thus  led  on  in  what  is  positively  sure 
as  against  what  is  not  sure.  The  only  sure  thing 
is  that  purposed  thing  God  has  stored  up  in  His 
own  heart  for  me.  My  bank  is  God's  heart.  My 
pillow  is  His  bosom. 

We  certainly  travesty  this  gracious  word  of 

157 


158  MISSION  STUDIES 

God,  ** purpose/'  when  we  use  it  concerning  high- 
sounding  phrases  as  to  everlasting  heaven  and 
happiness,  and  disown  it  as  to  the  plenishing  of 
the  homely  cuphoard.  Tremblingly  we  can  write 
the  phrase — the  eternal  purpose  of  God  concern- 
ing to-day's  meal !  For  God's  purpose  to  usward 
is  exactly  like  the  third  chapter  of  Colossians. 
It  begins  in  heaven,  as  Mr.  Spurgeon  said,  and 
ends  in  the  kitchen.  It  speaks  of  the  heavenlies 
and  descends  to  the  earthlies.  ^*It  is  of  Faith 
that  it  might  be  sure." 

This  brings  us  to  another  consideration  re- 
garding the  path  of  Faith.  It  was  remarked  by 
my  missionary  friend  to  one  of  our  number,  that 
we  on  the  field  should  be  relieved  of  the  burden  of 
the  money  question,  and  left  free  for  service. 
This  is  so  common  and  specious  a  mode  of  refer- 
ring to  the  glorious  life  of  Faith,  that  we  should 
nail  it  down  as  we  meet  it.  No;  none  can  have 
Faith  for  me.  Before  high  heaven  I  must  my- 
self have  faith  for  myself.  It  is  the  only  thing 
another  cannot  do  for  me.  Bread  of  my  soul, 
or  bread  of  my  body — I  must  trust  Him  for  both. 
(Of  course  they  who  trust  not  at  all,  often  get 
plenty  of  bread;  but  so  do  the  ravens  and  young 
lions.)     If  another  can  trust  for  me  for  my  daily 


^'THE  CEETAINTIES  OF  FAITH"     159 

bread,  then  lie  can  trust  for  me  for  my  souPs 
salvation.  No  committee  can  bear  this  burden 
for  me.  Every  man  must  bear  his  own  burden, 
in  this  matter,  and  that  is  where  the  Lord  comes 
in.  **Cast  thy  burden  upon  the  Lord"  was  writ- 
ten for  just  such  a  one. 

A  close  exegesis  of  the  sixth  chapter  of  Ga- 
latians,  so  full  of  a  true  balance  and  combination 
of  qualities,  would  doubtless  show  that  the  precise 
man  to  whom  the  words  '*  Every  man  shall  bear 
his  own  burden"  refer,  is  a  teacher,  looking  only 
to  the  Lord  for  temporalities.  This  we  shall  see 
anon.  The  Lord  wants  me  to  cast  my  burden 
upon  Him,  not  on  a  committee.  Every  man  shall 
bear  his  own  burden  up  to  the  Lord,  upon  whom 
he  rolls  it.  In  the  sixth  chapter  of  Galatians  the 
whole  subject  is  revealed.  Matters  being  there 
put  in  their  true  sequence,  and  every  man  being 
burdened  with  his  own  responsibility,  God's  rule 
of  practical,  fraternal  stewardship  flashes  into 
full  view.  It  can  only  now  come  into  view.  He 
fixes  me  with  my  burden,  and  then,  lo,  in  full  view, 
stand  the  brethren  bearing  one  another's  burdens. 
There  stands  the  brother  who  could  not  go  to  a 
foreign  land,  so  you  fulfilled  his  lack  of  service. 
And  he  met  your  lack  as  you  had  met  his.    He 


160  MISSION  STUDIES 

bears  you  up  in  prayer,  too — no  light  burden  that 
— and  you  seek  to  serve  on  God's  upbearing  grace. 

In  Gal.  vi.  6,  insert  Paul's  omitted  ''but,"  and 
how  luminous  the  link  becomes.  ''Each  man 
shall  bear  his  own  burden,  but  let  him  that  is 
taught  in  the  Word  communicate  unto  him  that 
teacheth  in  all  good  things." 

Do  we  not  see  here  the  holy  fellowship  of 
stewardship  in  that  linking  but?  Souls  are 
linked  to  souls  in  a  deeper  sense  than  words  link 
words.  Every  man  must  look  off  to  God  for  all ; 
yes,  BUT  every  man  is  to  look  on  the  things  of 
others.  There  is  no  haphazard  exegesis  here,  we 
submit.  The  man  who  "teacheth"  is  the  central 
figure.  That  man  must  bear  his  own  burden ;  no 
committee  can  do  it  for  him.  Yet,  hastens  the 
Holy  Ghost  to  add,  each  man  must  bear  his  own 
burden,  hut  let  him  that  is  taught  in  the  Word 
communicate  unto  him  that  teacheth  in  all  good 
things.  Widow's  mite,  spices  of  Joseph,  and 
Gains'  hospitality  all  echo  thereto. 

They  went  forth,  taking  nothing  of  the  Gentiles ; 
therefore  let  him  that  is  "taught  in  the  Word" 
succour.  Paul  speaks  of  the  Gentiles  as  those  who 
have  not  the  law.  From  them  who  know  not  the 
Word,  nothing  is  received;  hut  let  him  that  is 


^^THE  CEETAINTIES  OF  FAITH''     161 

taught  communicate.  The  servant  has  often, 
manwardly,  been  left  to  bear  his  own  burden  by 
those  who  forget  to  bear  one  another's  burdens. 
There  was  no  link,  no  connecting  stewardship. 

Paul's  rallying  call  in  this  holy  particular  is 
indeed  inspiring,  and  often  misunderstood.  '^Be 
not  deceived"  by  parsimoniousness,  shouts  the 
Apostle.  *^God  is  not  mocked.  Whatsoever  a 
man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap."  God's  best 
Sower  went  forth  weeping,  bearing  precious  seed. 
And  as  He  sowed  so  shall  He  also  reap. 

It  behoves  us,  having  thus  struck  such  a  high 
apostolic  note,  to  be  found  of  our  God  truly  out 
in  the  sunlight  of  this  path  of  Faith.  Nothing 
shady;  nothing  halting  in  our  gait.  How  often 
the  very  phrase,  ^'living  by  Faith,"  is  in  itself  a 
thing  of  calculation  and  counterfeit.  How  often 
it  stands,  not  for  guileless  following  of  the  Home- 
less Stranger,  but  for  fleshly  shifts  and  contri- 
vances. Sincerity  is  the  cement  that  binds  the 
Christian  testimony  together.  Surely  it  is  the 
mother  of  all  hypocrisy  to  claim  to  have  taken  a 
plunge  into  the  ocean  of  the  Lord  when,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  we  are  really  swimming  with  one 
foot  aground  on  the  shore  margin. 

This   metaphor   is    literally   used    concerning 


162  MISSION  STUDIES 

Abraham,  God's  friend — the  father  of  all  who 
believe.  God  covenanted  with  His  friend  to  give 
him  the  land  by  the  word  of  His  month.  Yet  of 
the  tangible  land  itself  we  thrillingly  read  that 
He  gave  him  '^no,  not  so  mnch  as  to  set  his  foot 
on.''  So,  too,  with  the  children  of  God's  friend. 
We  must  go  forth  like  onr  father,  not  knowing 
whither  we  are  going.  To  be  literal,  we  must, 
humanly  speaking,  let  ourselves  drown,  reserving, 
no,  not  so  much  as  a  place  to  put  our  foot  on. 
A  prearranged  contract  of  salary  might  be  too 
large,  or  too  small.  To  have  even  a  semblance 
of  a  contract  makes  it  all  the  more  false  if  we 
walk  in  the  steps  of  the  faith  of  our  father  Abra- 
ham. Not  even  so  much  as  to  set  your  foot  on. 
Not  even  a  little  bit  of  a  Society  about  you.  Is 
all  this  too  sweeping?  Has  Faith  then  no  foot- 
ing at  all!  Yes,  and  it  is  located  in  that  very 
same  Scripture.  Here  it  is:  **He  gave  him 
.  .  .  not  so  much  as  to  set  his  foot  on;  yet  He 
PEOMisED."  And  the  promise  is  Faith's  footing. 
**It  is  of  Faith  that  it  might  be  sure." 

In  conclusion,  it  would  be  well  to  answer  the 
question  as  to  what  particular  Scripture  stands 
definitely  against  a  legal  contract  of  salary  in  the 
Lord's  work.    We  have  only  to  refer  to  the  other 


^^THE  CEETAINTIES  OF  FAITH »'     163 

half  of  that  very  same  word  in  Eom.  iv.  14. 
There  the  Apostle  is  careful  to  discriminate,  and 
to  him  law  and  flesh  are  convertible  terms.  For, 
saith  the  Apostle,  if  the  Promise  be  of  law,  then 
Faith  is  made  void,  and  the  Promise  is  of  none 
effect.  Yes,  even  a  very  little  bit  of  law,  a  very 
small  contract,  a  verbal  understanding  even — if 
your  money  comes  through  such  channels — then 
Faith  is  made  void,  and  the  promise  of  none  ef- 
fect. Law,  in  this  connection,  is  a  contract  in 
which  A  undertakes  to  do  so  and  so,  and  B  re- 
ciprocates with  so  and  so.  Along  such  lines, 
whether  for  one's  soul  or  one's  salary,  Faith  is 
made  void.  The  fullest  thing  in  all  the  economy 
of  grace  (the  fullest  because  the  emptiest)  is 
made  void,  and  God's  promise  returns  to  His  own 
heart  unused. 

The  sum,  then,  of  the  whole  matter  is  that  he 
alone  is  the  really  practical  Christian  who  so  acts. 
The  Faith  that  opens  everlasting  doors  can  best 
prove  its  reality  by  being  now,  in  time,  a  cup- 
board Faith.  Christ  filleth  all  things,  and  there- 
fore the  barrel  and  cruse  are  of  His  filling  too. 


IV 
ALL  AT  IT! 


Why  he  surprised  at  Islam  sweeping  one-eighth 
of  the  earth's  surf  ace  f  They  have  no  priestly 
cult;  they  are  all  at  it! 

#  #  # 

*^All  Christians  are  altogether  priests  and  let 
it  he  anathema  to  assert  there  is  any  other  priest 
tJian  he  who  is  Christian  for  it  will  he  asserted 
without  the  Word  of  God,  on  no  authority  hut 
the  sayings  of  men,  or  the  antiquity  of  custom,  or 
the  multitude  of  those  that  think  so/' 

Luther. 


may 


*  «  # 

For  ye  all  can  prophesy  one  hy  one  that  all 
f  learn,  and  all  may  he  comforted. 

Paul. 


TV 

ALL  AT  it! 

John  iv.  14 ;  1  Cor,  xiv.  31 

One  of  the  strongest  proofs  that  Christ  meant 
His  Church  to  be  a  pilgrim  band  is  the  fact  that 
He  stripped  it  of  all  ordinances,  save  the  two 
travelling  institutions  of  Baptism  and  The  Lord's 
Supper.  Wherever  man  is,  there,  even  there,  is 
water.  Wherever  the  pilgrim  rests,  there,  even 
there,  is  some  sort  of  humble  table  in  the  wilder- 
ness. A  sharp  intended  contrast  all  this,  surely,  to 
the  heavy  cumbersome  Tabernacle  furniture  of  a 
past  dispensation  of  works.  How  different  the 
pilgrim  Church  of  the  upper  room,  stripped  and 
lithe  for  service!  There  is  no  ecclesiastical 
furniture  for  the  only  outfit  they  have  is  God's 
iNFiT.  That  is  to  say,  the  minimum  of  machinery 
and  the  maximimi  of  power. 

In  this  connection,  I  am  indebted  to  a  quaint 
unlettered  African  for  quite   a   new  proof-text 

167 


168  MISSION  STUDIES 

in  favour  of  the  *^all-at-it''  ministry  so  dis- 
tinctive a  feature  of  1  Cor.  xiv.  That  animated 
photograph  of  open  ministry  in  Corinth  was 
linked  by  the  African  with  the  wonderful  fourth 
chapter  of  John.  On  the  one  hand  he  showed 
how  the  same  Bantu  word  bound  these  two  seem- 
ingly very  different  chapters  together.  Lost  in 
Aryan  speech,  the  link  is  still  strong  in  Semitic; 
and  the  ^^ bubbling  up''  of  a  living  water-spring 
is  the  same  word  as  that  ^^ bubbling  over"  of  gift 
in  Corinth.  The  Assembly  is  there  seen  as  com- 
posed of  a  congregation  of  so  many  living,  bub- 
bling water-springs.  **He  that  believeth"  is  the 
man  of  whom  it  is  declared  that  in  him  the  up- 
bubbling  spring  would  assert  itself.  Thus,  the 
animated  photograph  of  Corinth  given  by  Paul 
is,  therefore,  only  a  natural  sequence  of  ^*all  that 
believe  being  together."  The  God  who  created 
so  many  living  inlets,  does  of  sheer  divine  neces- 
sity saQction  as  many  outlets.  Hence  the  blessed 
word  of  authority:  **for  ye  all  can  prophesy  (or 
** bubble  up")  one  by  one."  There  is  no  ecclesi- 
astical outfit  in  Corinth.  It  is  all  infit.  And  the 
ordinance  of  God  is,  that  what  He  puts  in  must 
come  out,  ''We  cannot  but  speak!"  The  thing 
will  out. 


ALL  AT  IT!  169 

Nor  is  that  old  unlettered  African's  link  ex- 
hausted yet  awhile.  Beyond  the  link  of  identical 
language,  you  have  the  stronger  link  of  identical 
context.  Surely  the  fourth  of  John  is  deeply  con- 
cerned with  the  very  theme  of  1  Cor.  xiv.!  For 
were  not  the  very  words  regarding  the  bubbling- 
up  spring  of  living  water  uttered  in  the  specific 
connection  of  Christ's  words  as  to  ''worship  in 
Spirit  and  in  Truth"?  And  what,  indeed,  is  1 
Cor.  xiv.  if  not  the  divine  snapshot  photograph 
of  true  and  spiritual  worship  in  the  Assembly? 
*'A11  of  you  have  a  hymn,  etc."  What  is  that  if 
not  each  individual  well  of  living  water  bubbling 
over?  Living  water  only  means  moving  water. 
God  put  it  in  and  God  demands  that  it  come  out. 
The  water  must  spring  up  to  the  level  of  its 
source,  hence  ''the  Father  seeketh  such  to  wor- 
ship Him."  "Ye  can  all  prophesy  one  by  one." 
"It  shall  be  in  him  (in  the  Assembly)  a  well  of 
water  springing  up."  How  then  can  mere  man 
shut  it  down?  "The  Father  seeketh  such."  Let 
us  all  thank  God,  and  that  old  African,  for  linking 
John  iv.  with  1  Cor.  xiv.;  a  double  link  of  iden- 
tical language  and  identical  context.  He  was 
right.    Worship  in  Spirit  and  in  Truth  is  the 


170  MISSION  STUDIES 

double  theme  of  these  double  chapters.     The  well 
of  water  must  bubble  up  if  it  is  living  water. 

II 

Now,  all  this  can  stand  the  sternest  of  scrutiny. 
Let  us  bring  to  bear  upon  this  humble  vision  of 
bubbling  springs  in  the  Corinth  Assembly  the 
severest  test  of  all  known  ecclesiastical  nomen- 
clature. Take  the  most  complicated  of  any  form 
of  earthly  worship.  The  most  intricate  of  all 
puzzling  forms  of  human  ritual  shoots  down  its 
roots  into  the  solitary  word,  priesthood.  Eome, 
just  here,  remember,  is  the  soul  of  frankness,  and 
heartily  claims  in  priesthood  the  efficient  cause  of 
all  her  elaborate  ritual.  Thus,  the  test  becomes 
unerringly  simple,  because  pivoted  on  the  lone 
word,  priesthood.  Well,  then,  literally  accepting 
Eome's  own  dictum,  and  speaking  in  the  terms  of 
ecclesiastical  systems  (for  God  had  one  such  holy 
institution!),  what,  I  ask,  is  1  Cor.  xiv.  if  not  a 
vision  of  all  the  worshippers  performing  priestly 
service?  There  they  are,  a  family  of  priests, 
with  priestly  status  and  office.  **Ye  can  all 
prophesy  one  by  one,'*  is  divine  authority  con- 
ceded to  all  those  spiritual  priests.  The  High 
Priest  has  gone  in,  and  they  are  left  behind  in 


ALL  AT  IT!  171 

wilderness  testimony,  priests  unto  their  God. 
^' All  of  you  have  a  hymn'' — surely  that  is  a  sacri- 
fice of  praise  f  Now,  only  a  priest,  remember,  can 
offer  a  sacrifice ! 

To  object,  as  some  rightly  do,  that  Paul  here 
regulates  the  said  priestly  sacrifices  of  praise  is 
merely  to  emphasise  this  very  Levitical  analogy. 
For  when,  by  the  commandment  of  the  Lord,  Paul 
said  that  they  all  could  so  offer  the  sacrifice  of 
praise,  the  priesthood  of  all  believers  was  thereby 
acknowledged.  To  regulate  the  godly  exercise  of 
such  ministry  as  he  proceeds  forthwith  to  do,  is 
merely  to  accentuate  that  very  priestly  aspect  of 
the  Corinth  Assembly.  For  the  Levites  were  not 
a  mob,  but  served  in  orderly  courses.  Hence 
Paul,  by  the  commandment  of  the  Lord,  founds 
on  their  very  spiritual  priesthood  to  declare  that 
all  things  must  be  done  ** decently  and  in  order." 
The  very  Levitical  phrase  this,  used  in  1  Chron. 
vi.  32  to  remind  us  that,  priests  though  they  all 
were,  yet  did  they  **wait  on  their  office  according 
to  their  order.''  '^Ye  can  all  prophesy  one  by 
one."  That  is  their  Levite  birthright.  **Let 
the  prophets  speak  two  or  three."  That  is  the 
Levites  in  their  courses.    '^Ye  can  all  prophesy 


172  MISSION  STUDIES 

one  by  one"  does  not  stupidly  mean,  ^^all  in  one 
day'M 

in 

There  is  no  cheap  ad  captandum  analogy  here. 
The  mere  edge,  this,  of  that  rich  vein  of  Levitical 
analogy  so  beautifully  elaborated  by  Miss  Haber- 
shon/  Quite  one  hundred  and  forty  sober  points 
of  analogy  she  adduces  between  the  priesthood 
of  Israel  and  the  Church  of  God!  The  inter- 
penetration,  too,  of  this  analogy  absolutely 
perfect.  In  fact,  after  reading  The  Priests  and 
Levites,  one  sees  at  a  glance  that  on  this  subject 
he  alone  is  divinely  theological  who  is  analogical. 

The  Pope  and  a  quorum  of  Cardinals  would  have 
hard  work  to  try  and  explain  away  Miss  Haber- 
shon's  solid  one  hundred  and  forty  instances  of 
common  analogical  birthright  between  the  select 
Levites  of  old  and  all  Christ's  Church.  Luther 
it  was,  in  the  old  fierce  battle-days,  who  seized 
upon  this  very  1  Cor.  xiv.  weapon  to  break 
Popery  therewith.  Alas,  that  he  should  ever 
have  allowed  himself  to  drift  beyond  such  an  an- 
chorage! Nevertheless,  Martin  Luther's  great 
letter  to  the  Moravian  Brethren  will  ever  stand 

^  The  Priests  and  Levites,  a  type  of  the  Church,  By 
Ada  R.  Habershon.     Alfred  Holness. 


ALL  AT  IT!  173 

stubbornly  on  record,  eloquent  of  the  fact  that, 
when  the  tempest  raged  its  worst,  1  Cor.  xiv.  was 
the  silencing  weapon  he  wielded  against  Eome  to 
demonstrate  the  priesthood  of  all  believers. 
**A11  Christians,"  said  Luther,  **are  altogether 
priests  and  let  it  be  anathema  to  assert  there  is 
any  other  priest  than  he  who  is  Christian  for  it 
will  be  asserted  without  the  Word  of  God  and  on 
no  authority  but  the  sayings  of  men  or  the  an- 
tiquity of  custom  or  the  multitude  of  those  that 
think  so."  *^ Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away, 
but  My  words  shall  not  pass  away." 

Why  is  it  that  so  many  exegetes  under  a 
specious  plea  of  rightly  dividing  the  *^Word" 
warn  us  off  *^ Hebrews"  as  being  a  Jewish 
Epistle  f  Is  it  because  God  has  declared  that  the 
whole  Church  of  Christ  is  a  priesthood,  and 
proved  it  to  the  hilt  in  one  hundred  and  forty 
stubborn  links  of  analogy?  And  if  all  the  Church 
be  a  heavenly  priesthood  where  is  the  laity  1  And 
where  the  status  of  ^^clericy"?  Truly  a  straw 
indicates  the  current,  and  we  are  less  Protestant 
than  we  think. 

The  godly  Pastor  (and  we  must  have  Jiim!)  is 
the  man  who  realises  that  he  only  officially  exists 
to  foster  this  ^^all-at-it"  functioning  of  the  mem- 


174  MISSION  STUDIES 

bers  of  the  body.  God's  big-hearted  Moses  could 
confound  many  a  weakling  jealous  of  his  peurile 
priestly  prerogative.  Listen  to  the  royal  record : 
*^And  there  ran  a  young  man  and  told  Moses  .  .  . 
Eldad  and  Medad  do  prophesy  in  camp.  And 
Joshua  said,  ^My  lord  Moses,  forbid  them.'  And 
Moses  said,  *Art  thou  jealous  for  my  sake? 
Would  God  that  all  the  Lord's  people  were 
prophets  that  the  Lord  would  put  his  Spirit  upon 
them!'" 

Big-hearted  Moses  agrees  admirably  with  brave- 
hearted  Paul  who  said  ^  ^  Ye  may  all  prophesy  one 
by  one." 

To  sum  up.  To  regulate  all  this  bubbling  up 
gift  is  one  thing.  To  supress  it  is  quite  amazingly 
another.  Why  bring  civil  war  into  God's  con- 
test? In  the  very  breath  where  He  says  ^^God  is 
not  a  God  of  confusion  but  of  peace,"  the  word 
proceeds  * '  Ye  all  can  prophesy  one  by  one. ' '  How 
then  can  this  connote  confusion? 

But  the  clinching  and  convincing  proof  is  found 
in  the  very  (yes !  very)  verse  that  is  used  to  kill 
out  this  same  **all-at-it"  ministry.  What,  I  ask, 
is  so  seemingly  contradictory  of  this  '^all-at-it" 
proposition  as  the  well-worn  line,  **Let  all  things 
be  done  decently  and  in  order"?    Yet  this  very 


ALL  AT  IT!  175 

line  occurs  in  the  same  convincing  context  as  ^^ye 
can  all  prophesy  one  by  one" !  How,  then,  can  we 
even  faintly  conceive  that  '* decency  and  order" 
are  at  war  with  its  own  context  of  ^*all-at-it" 
ministry  ? 

On  the  convincing  contrary,  what  can  divine  de- 
cency and  order  mean  if  not  this  very  open  minis- 
try which  is  its  consistent  contexts  By  what  man- 
ner of  exegetical  propriety  can  you  enter  1  Cor. 
xiv.  by  the  back  door  of  *  *  Let  all  things  be  done  de- 
cently and  in  order,"  and  then  calmly  ignore  the 
preceding  precept  that  ^*ye  can  all  prophesy  one 
by  one"?  Here  surely  you  have  the  old  story  of 
David  cutting  off  the  head  of  Goliath  with  the 
giant's  own  sword.  And  the  very  verse  assumed 
to  be  against  is  actually  the  proof-text  for  this 
*^all-at-it"  method. 

This  and  this  alone  will  evangelise  the  world 
— all  at  it!  Too  long  a  mere  nickname  has 
done  duty  for  an  argument.  And  to  call  this 
''Plymouthism"  or  any  other  *4sm"  is  merely  to 
be  the  victim  of  an  exasperated  expedient.  It  is 
the  old  obvious  artifice  of  making  a  nickname  do 
duty  for  an  argument.  It  takes  all  sorts  of  people 
to  make  a  world  and  all  sorts  of  members  to  make 
a  ministering  body.     That  there  is  a  certain  kind 


176  MISSION  STUDIES 

of  powerful,  pungent  illiteracy  can  be  proved  from 
the  inspired  Word  of  God  where  not  a  few  por- 
tions are  written  in  '*bad  Greek."  The  pedantic 
essayist  may  appeal  to  the  select  few,  but  God's 
millions  are  multiform  and  the  majority  do  not 
care  to  catch  up  a  royal  rousing  man  on  a  mere 
verbal  technicality.  The  soft  eye  cannot  say  to 
the  hard,  homy  hand,  ^^I  have  no  need  of  thee." 
Nay,  much  more,  the  very  members  which  seem  to 
be  more  feeble  are  necessary.  For  the  body  is  not 
one  member  but  many. 

The  case  of  Islam  is  a  clear  convincing  proof 
of  a  non-clerical  caste  sweeping  one-eighth  of  the 
world's  population  with  an  '*all-at-it"  propa- 
ganda. From  Morocco  to  Zanzibar,  from  Sierra 
Leone  to  Siberia  and  China,  from  Bosnia  to  New 
Guinea  has  witnessed  the  success  of  ^^all-at-itism." 


THE   END 


